Turlock girl left without customized wheelchair after car theft

(KTXL) — One mom Juliana Melgoza phone calls her daughter an angel on earth. Her brothers contact her Harley Quinn — Her real title is Wonder.

“She’s a literal miracle. She really is,” Melgoza, who life in Turlock, explained.

And now, they’re hoping for yet another 1. 

On Sunday, the Melgozas were receiving all set to go to church when they seen their auto was gone.

“Miracle’s older sister, my 8-yr-outdated, seemed exterior and reported, ‘Mommy, there is no auto,’” Melgoza recalled.

Their auto, together with Miracle’s custom made pediatric wheelchair in it, was stolen. In a couple of hours, law enforcement ended up ready to identify the automobile, but every little thing was absent, such as the wheelchair. 

“It has her identify on it, in colors where you of course know it’s for a baby. So, my 1st assumed was, ‘Why, why would anybody do that?’” Melgoza reported. 

The wheelchair experienced a lot more than Miracle’s identify on it. It experienced straps and head help created precisely for her.

Melgoza mentioned Wonder has spina bifida, a condition in which the backbone does not totally build.

“There are other diagnoses that go together with that, scoliosis also remaining one of them, which is what influences her again and influences her ability to sit straight or transfer. There is no core power there,” Melgoza explained.

Wonder was established to have surgical procedures at the finish of January, but that’s now on maintain.

“Right now, I’m carrying her. You can not hand-have a person a extensive distance that has had a bar placement in their back again. It’s just not likely to occur,” Melgoza discussed.

Her daughter also can not be on a university campus without having a wheelchair regulated for her prognosis. Melgoza reported whoever took Miracle’s wheelchair took so a great deal far more than they know.

“This was her capacity to have independence. This was the only unit she had to be equipped to move from room to room herself without anyone else pushing her and just the potential to be outside the house without the need of remaining carried,” Melgoza said.

But by way of the total thing, there has been an outpouring of guidance from the Turlock group. The Turlock Police Officers Affiliation amazed Miracle with a $1,000 look at. 

“Just the assist of individuals even just indicating, ‘Hey, I’m listed here with you. We’re wanting out. Our officers are looking.’ Even just the guidance from the section, all the departments, genuinely,” Melgoza stated. “Despite the negativity of this situation, there has been an outpour of aid and it does restore your hope in humanity.” 

Her daughter’s personal resilience is supplying her hope way too. 

“No issue what issues appear, she continue to does anything with a smile even now as we converse about a thing that has been taken from her,” Melgoza reported. “She however remains in this positive ambiance. Her eyes are smiling.” 

On Wednesday, the Melgozas will be conference with the business that made her wheelchair to get an strategy of how substantially it will charge to switch it.