A customized wheelchair made for a disabled Las Cruces girl was recovered during a recent burglary investigation by the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department.
The chair, a Convaid EZ-Rider Mobility Stroller, was specially ordered by Ana Salinas, whose six-year-old daughter Dominique was diagnosed at birth with Phelan-McDermid Syndrome – a rare disorder that left Dominique unable to walk or talk.
Salinas reported the wheelchair stolen last month and publicized the incident on social media.
News reports spread quickly about the incident, and several Las Cruces residents offered to help replace it.
A Doña Ana County Sheriff’s detective who was cataloguing property that had been identified as stolen came across the unique red stroller and remembered seeing reports about it.
The Las Cruces Police Department was notified, and contact was made with Salinas, who was then able to identify it. The stroller was returned to Salinas and Dominique, who is currently being treated for an infection at a Las Cruces-area hospital.
“I’m so relieved to just have it back,” said Salinas, who was given a replacement wheelchair-stroller that is too big for Dominique, but still provided easier mobility for her. “It would have taken at least three months to get another one custom-made, not to mention the costs involved to replace it.”
Information from Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Department.