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May 24, 2007 - A 21-year-old Trenton man is having trouble doing everyday tasks. And it's all because some heartless thieves stole his wheelchair.


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After being born with cerebral palsy, Rafael Garcia has had lots of challenges in his life. He's an independent young man who used his motorized wheelchair to get around. But now thieves have taken away his independence by stealing that chair from right out in front of his house.

"I don't understand, I'm a nice person so I don't understand who would take a chair," said Garcia.

Rafael woke up Tuesday morning to find that someone had stolen the 400-pound motorized chair he parked in front of his Chestnut Avenue home. It was a blow to the young man, who's the senior class president at Mercer Junior/Senior School, since he relied on it so heavily. Garcia told us he, "Depended on the chair. I went to the movies I went to the mall."

He's been using an old push wheelchair without a motor, but that presents a problem. Occupational therapist Barbara Fox says, "He has weakness in his arms so he can't push the chair with enough strength to get around. So he needs somebody to move him everywhere he goes now."

Rafael says he didn't have the wheelchair chained or locked to the porch, still you have to wonder why anyone would do this.

"I think that it's teenagers that just think its funny, they don't realize if it's a wheelchair it's somebody's mode of transportation. They need to live," said neighbor Andrea Sirak.

Rafael is due to graduate in 2 weeks and needs his chair for college. He has a message for the thieves who brazenly stole his motorized chair: "If you have it I don't care if you show your face. Just bring it back, that's all I want."

Since first airing the story during the Oprah show, Daryl Johnson from Swedesboro has come forward to offer Rafael a wheelchair until his is found or replaced.