Boy's wheelchair stolen from Lawrence home

LAWRENCE, Mass. -- A young boy bound to a wheelchair was the victim to a heartless crime in Lawrence. Now the boy and his family want to know who could do this.

“My heart just dropped. I’m like oh my God. Who would really take a chair, a wheelchair that’s meant for somebody that’s sick, that has issues, that can’t do without,” said Meilene Valazquez, the boy’s mother.

Isaiah De La Rosa, 8, has cerebral palsy and his wheelchair is everything to him, but someone stole it.

“We love him to death, but it’s really, really hard to get him around and to get him to do things that normal kids would do,” said Heecliff De La Rosa, Isaiah’s father.

Isaiah’s other wheelchair is broken and he was using a loaner chair, that’s the one that was stolen. The chair gives him independence, holds him up and enables Isaiah to go to school and therapy, but now his parents must carry him everywhere. When they can’t, lying in bed is the only other option for him.

“Dad came downstairs and asked me, ‘Did you leave the chair’ and I was like ‘Yeah I did’ and he was like ‘Well it’s not here,’” said Valazquez.

Valazquez said she left the chair on the side of the house. It was before 7 a.m. that it was stolen.

“He went all over the place and then he couldn’t find it. He looked in the backyard, on the other side,” said Valazquez. “Whoever stole it, you don’t have a heart. I don’t know what to say. You have hurt my family, hurt my son.”

For now, Isaiah cannot go to school or therapy. Valazquez said the wheelchair that was stolen costs $2,500.

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