Disabled Girl’s $10k Laptop Computer Stolen – Turns Up On Craigslist
What happens when a disabled girl’s $10k laptop computer is stolen? A laptop computer that the young girl uses to communicate with since she cannot speak? In steps Supermom to the rescue. The laptop computer is accidentally left in a bag by a curb when the thief riding his bike swipes the box. After some snooping around, the crook learns that the computer is more valuable than your average laptop system and places it for sale on Craigslist for S3,500.
Mom gives the crook a call and plays dumb about the laptop, but immediately realizes it is her daughter’s expensive laptop. She agrees to meet the thief at the San Jose, CA flea market. Mom calls San Jose PD, who joins in on the sting and busts the bad guy.
The article in the San Jose Mercury News also states:
Hedy was born with a rare chromosome disorder that left her severely mentally disabled, with no verbal skills whatsoever. Before she got the DynaVox in May 2008, Hedy primarily communicated through gestures or the occasional picture.
Hedy’s teachers and therapists had spent hours programming the DynaVox with words and pictures specific to her needs. The device has a touch screen with different words and symbols that Hedy can touch to have the computer speak on her behalf.
“She needed something to express herself, and this was it,” Mulligan said.
Mulligan had spent more than a year working with a technology specialist, doing assessments and paperwork to submit to her health insurance, which ultimately agreed to spring for the device. But the insurance company would not pay for a second one, and the family’s homeowners insurance would pay for only half.
After it went missing, Hedy was forlorn.
“She kept looking for it. She would look at every computer screen in the house and if we pulled out our iPhone, she would try to grab it,” Mulligan said.
So, of course, the family, especially Hedy, was ecstatic when it was found.
It is always heartwarming to read stories such as this when the good people of the world actually beat the bad people of the world.
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