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A four year old Paris boy can’t get around tonight. His custom-made wheelchair was inside his family’s vehicle when it was stolen at a Brantford mall on Tuesday. The family was hoping the thieves would have had the heart to at least drop the wheelchair off somewhere for police to find. But as Cindy Csordas reports, that’s not going to happen.
4 year old Isaiah Gardecki is severely disabled. He can’t stand or walk, he’s fed by a tube. His life is made comfortable by his wheelchair that was worth about seven thousand dollars.
“That was an extension of him” says Isaiah’s father Steve. “He ate in there, he played in there. We went to the mall, we’d go to McMaster Hospital. It was very familiar to him.”
“Unless you walk in this life with a severely handicapped person that you are caring for, I don’t think that people can fully understand and appreciate the value of a wheelchair” says Isaiah’s mom Meghan.
The family’s Escalade was stolen at Lynden Park Mall in Brantford Tuesday afternoon.
Meghan says she was inside Sport Chek for about 15 minutes. In that time the thieves managed to break in to her locked escalade which was parked just outside the front doors, start it and drive it away all in broad daylight.
It was later found burned out on Six Nations land. The wheelchair was incinerated. There was a police chase about a half hour after the escalade had been stolen. Police had to call off the pursuit.
“We’re out a wheelchair which is basically Isaiah’s legs so he’s basically going to be held, unless he’s sleeping , held 24/7 until we get a wheelchair.”
Brantford police say thieves target high end SUV’s. “It suggests somebody was watching. It’s involved with organized crime. Sometimes it’s the wheels, the high value for the wheels and the rims sometimes they steal the identification number and the engine parts” says Natalie Laing from Brantford Police.
While police search for suspects, the Gardecki’s may have to wait up to six months to get a new wheelchair for Isaiah. A “Go Fund Me” page has been set up to help the family get a new wheelchair.
