A specially equipped van used to get a 9-year-old girl with cerebral palsy to doctor appointments was stolen from in front of a family’s home Sunday in Cicero.
Monday morning, Bill Upton woke up and called his wife—certain she must have moved the van.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Upton said.
“I told him to stop playing,” said Vanessa Serman, adding that she thought her husband was joking.
But it was no laughing matter.
In addition to her daughter Lisa’s doctor appointments and therapy sessions, Serman said she also used the van to get her son to school when she did not have a nurse to stay at home.
“She’s unable to pretty much do anything but smile and let us know she’s happy that we’re around her,” Upton said of Lisa.
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Lisa’s round the clock needs are woven into the fabric of the family and the layout of their home.
“It just saddens me that someone would steal a handicap equipped vehicle that someone needed very bad to get around,” Upton said.
The wheelchair accessible 2000 green Dodge Caravan with Illinois plate 296645 was a gift from the Make a Wish Foundation last year.
“Now I’m just hoping that we can find it,” Serman said.
Cicero police are investigating the theft as well as an unsuccessful attempt to break into another nearby van the same night.
