Heartless thieves steal nine-year-old boy's wheelchair in Malaga city
The family of the child, who broke his leg in the summer and needs it to get around, is appealing for help to find it on social media
A nine-year-old boy who has been using a wheelchair after he fractured his leg is now at a loss without it after someone stole the vital piece of medical equipment in Malaga city.
Julen has needed the wheelchair since August after suffering a fracture to his leg fibula and fibula. Doctors are hesitant for him to put weight on his leg, not even with crutches, until it has fully healed. But now, Julen's mother said he can't even go to school after someone stole the wheelchair.
The family last saw it on the night of Saturday 12 October when they arrived home after spending the evening with friends. They parked their van near their home in the Girón neighbourhood and left the wheelchair inside it as Julen's father carried him inside the house.
"The next day I went for lunch with some friends and my husband called me at midday to tell me that he had gone down to the van and found it open," Julen's mother Jésica said.
The back door of the camper van had been forced. Some items were missing, but the most valuable of all was the wheelchair. "When my son arrived with his father and saw that it was missing... he couldn't stop crying. He kept repeating over and over again that now he wouldn't be able to go out in the street or to school," Jésica said.
To make matters worse, the wheelchair doesn't even belong to the family. When Julen broke his leg on 9 August while playing in a ball park, his parents started to look for a children's model, as the regular adult one would not fit through the corridors of their house. "We had no holidays and because we couldn't find a children's wheelchair, he couldn't leave the house. We ordered one from Amazon, but it never arrived. At least we got our money back," she said.
They finally found the child model Julen needed in an orthopaedic clinic in Malaga, where they rented it for 75 euros for four weeks. "We had planned to return the wheelchair at the end of the month because, if everything goes well, Julen will no longer need it. The cast has been removed and on 31 October he goes to the doctor for a check-up. The specialist who is treating him told the family that until then he cannot support his foot, so he cannot use crutches. The wheelchair acted as his way of getting around. He could go to school and they helped him in and out of it," Jésica said.
Julen's parents have reported the theft to the police and have been asked to take the van so investigators can take fingerprints. Julen's father, Santiago, has visited all the flea markets in Malaga to see if the wheelchair has been offered for sale. Family and friends have also made an appeal on social media to find the wheelchair. "People are turning their support to us. Hopefully it will turn up," Jésica said.
