Crime & Safety
What Kind of Person Takes a Disabled Child's Wheelchair?
Kelly Guzniczak is getting ready for an October trip to Disney World when she leaves her autistic son's EZ Rider stroller-chair folded in the driveway. Forty-five minutes later, it's gone.
This is one of those stories that simultaneously fills your heart with sympathy and love ... and makes you sincerely hope Geneva police find the jerk who had neither of those qualities when he or she took off with a disabled child's wheelchair.
Kelly Guzniczak of the 800 block of Geneva Drive was running errands on a hectic Thursday—the Guzniczaks were gearing for their first-ever trip to Disney World, and frankly, every day is pretty busy when you have three kids and a dog. Kelly was clearing out the van so she could take it in into the shop in preparation for the trip.
Kelly's son, Gavin, is 8, autistic and was born 23 weeks early. He attends second grade at Davis Elementary School in St. Charles as part of the Mid-Valley Cooperative's New Pathways program for kids with special needs.
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"He has low muscle tone, so it's hard to walk long distances," Kelly explained.
So the Guzniczaks bought him a chair with wheels. It's more than a stroller and less than a full-size wheelchair, but it's just right for Gavin's needs. It's called a Corvaid EZ Rider travel chair, and it's valued at $1,799, according to Geneva police reports.
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So Kelly is switching contents from her van to her car with Gavin and Maya, 10, and Fiona, 3, and she gets them all in the house but realizes she left the Corvaid chair folded in the driveway. It is there for a half hour, 45 minutes tops—police reports have it as sometime between 6:30 and 7:15 p.m.
But when she goes to look for the EZ Rider, it's gone.
"My sincere hope is that some kids were just messing around and grabbed it," Kelly said Wednesday at her home. "I've been hoping someone might find it out on the street or the bike path maybe and return it."
When I stopped by, Kelly was in the process of shopping around on the Web for a replacement. The lowest price she's seen so far is $1,300 and some chairs go for as much as $2,200.
She had the phone in one ear, and the dog barking, but she took the time to talk and e-mail the photo you see here. She smiled and shrugged her shoulders at the curve balls life sometimes throws you.
"He doesn't fit in traditional strollers," she said. "So we're kind of in crunch mode now."
