A 12-year-old Westchester County girl with a rare neurological condition has raised enough money to buy a new motorized wheelchair after her previous mobility aid was cruelly stolen from her front yard.
Family friends of Aliyah Rivera, of Ossining, launched a fundraiser days after her wheelchair, laptop and other belongings were swiped just outside her house Thursday as she was getting ready for school.
The preteen has been fighting Acute Flaccid Myelitis, an uncommon condition that attacks the nervous system – particularly a part of the spinal cord that causes the muscles and reflexes in the body to weaken, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says.
“It mostly just hurts me in the heart because he saw the backpack. He looked in the backpack and saw that it was school supplies,” Rivera told CBS 2 Monday.
“So obviously he knew it was a little girl’s wheelchair.”
Footage of the theft obtained by the station shows an unidentified man drive up in a maroon van before grabbing the wheelchair and putting it in his trunk.
“I get everyone has their own problems and maybe he did need it or maybe he wanted to sell it,” older sister Shaniah Rivera told CBS 2. “But it’s definitely wrong that he thought it was OK to take that from my little sister.”
A GoFundMe cited by the station has already passed its goal of $5,000 since it was created two days ago. So far, more than $6,700 has been raised by about 90 donors.
“Aliyah and her family are deeply touched by the outpouring of support from their local community and beyond!” the fundraiser states. “A heartfelt thank you to everyone for their kindness and generosity! It truly means the world to Aliyah!”