A disabled teen in Arizona says the recent theft of her wheelchair felt like someone was “taking away” her legs — and she’s not sure when she’ll be mobile again.
Josephine Siegel, 19, was finishing up her driver’s test at a facility in Tempe that caters to drivers with disabilities on Friday when her instructor assured Siegel that her wheelchair would be fine if left outside for the short time they’d be gone. But 15 minutes later, Siegel returned to Driving to Independence on West Broadway Road and found herself newly immobile, since her wheelchair was nowhere in sight.
“The first thing I thought was, ‘Oh crap, now I’m stuck,'” Siegel told The Post on Monday. “I honestly don’t think people realize what a position that puts me in. I felt trapped, I felt uncomfortable and it sent me into a panic attack.”
Siegel, who lost the use of her legs in a car accident two years ago, said police were hunting for two women spotted with a wheelchair at a nearby Motel 6.
The motel declined to release the footage, citing liability concerns, but a Tempe police officer told Siegel that the two female suspects were seen in the footage trying to disassemble and then reassemble the wheelchair.
“And they took it back apart and put in their car and drove off,” Siegel said, adding that they sped off in a gray Chrysler without tags.
Calls seeking comment from police were not immediately returned, but investigators told the Arizona Republic that a police report had been filed in connection with the incident. Information regarding video of the alleged theft was not released, however, according to the newspaper.
Siegel, a sophomore at Arizona State University majoring in social work, said she has since received a replacement wheelchair from the company that manufactured her previous model, but she doesn’t feel like herself in the new device, saying it’s simply too small.
“I need a chair that will fit me, not one that’s used as a model for someone else,” Siegel said. “And it really does have a lot of sentimental value to me.”
Siegel said the stolen wheelchair gave her mobility during several notable life events, including her graduation from high school, her first tattoo and her 18th birthday.
“That’s my independence, that’s my mobility,” she said of the wheelchair. “It’s just my life, really. You’re taking away my legs and my sense of who I am.”
Siegel has created an online fundraiser to help her get a replacement chair, with more than $1,500 collected as of midday Monday, according to the website.
That’s a far cry from the $7,000 out-of-pocket cost a new wheelchair would set Siegel back if an insurance company doesn’t pick up the tab, according to her mother.
“You don’t think somebody’s going to steal your wheelchair,” Amy Siegel told the Arizona Republic. “It’s just something no one would ever be prepared for. We don’t have an extra $8,000 sitting in the garage.”
Jenny Nordine, a supervisor at the driver rehabilitation facility, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
But as if losing her wheelchair wasn’t enough heartache, Josephine Siegel said she’s also being accused of creating the hoax by cruel online critics.
“The situation of my wheelchair being stolen is bad enough, but the nasty messages and rude comments of people saying we’re doing this for money, is out of hand,” Siegel wrote on Facebook. “It’s unfair and makes me not want to ever try to do anything ever. People make me sick.”
