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The mother of a disabled teenager is appealing for help after his walking aid was stolen from outside their house.
Lynsey Hayes was indoors when her 15-year-old son Darragh returned home on the bus from Sittingbourne's Meadowfield School last Friday at about 4.15pm.
Darragh, who has cerebral palsy, was assisted off the bus and into the property in Coats Avenue, Queensway, Sheerness, by his mum, while a helper put his black and chrome walker in the front garden.
Lynsey, 45, said: "I left the walker outside while I sorted Darragh out – within half-an-hour, it was gone.
"At first I thought it was a wind up, I thought someone was joking."
Darragh contracted meningitis when he was six-weeks-old, which caused him to have cerebral palsy, epilepsy and hydrocephalus, a build-up of fluid on the brain.
"Darragh has to use a walker all the time. He couldn't get around without it," Lynsey said.
"It's made me feel so angry and upset. Especially the fact that whoever did this actually came into our garden to take it, just so blatently and in broad daylight."
When asked how the ordeal had affected her son, Lynsey said: "He was shocked that someone could actually do that.
"He's not been in school since Monday as he's not been very well and that could have been triggered by what's happened."
She added: "It's sickening to think someone could do this. Even if they didn't think the walker was for a child, they can see it's a walking aid."
Lynsey said she got in touch with Darragh's physiotherapy team at the Orchards Centre in Sittingbourne, who had provided him with the frame.
"They were brilliant," the mother-of-two said.
"They ordered him a new one right away and it arrived today."
She added: "Darragh has a replacement now, but my husband Darren and I still want to find out who took his walker.
"They should be held responsible for it, whoever it was."
Police are investigating.
Anyone with information should call 01795 419119, quoting reference 46/113024/19 or the anonymous Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555 111.
