Boy's Wheelchair Stolen In Gurnee, Family Struggles To Afford New One

MARLON TAPANG - COPING WITH HIS STOLEN WHEELCHAIR
HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP! http://www.glasa.org/marlon.html
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A 16-year-old boy with cerebral palsy is struggling to get around--and study for his finals--after the custom wheelchair he uses was stolen from his family's driveway in suburban Gurnee.

NBC Chicago reports that Marlon Tapang finally got the nearly $5,000 wheelchair after his parents battled with an insurance company to pay for it, and it gave him a sense of independence. Marlon's parents were preparing their son for his morning bus ride to school Friday when it was stolen.

"I put his backpack on the wheelchair seat with his lunchbox," Jarka Tapang, Marlon's mother, told the Daily Herald. "His father moved it ahead, put it in the middle of the driveway, then walked Marlon out from the kitchen through the garage."

The custom-made chair allowed Marlon, an honor student at Warren Township High School, to go to the mall with his friends and even play basketball.

"We sweat for that chair," his mother told the Herald. "It took time to make it. We have to travel, customize it for his size. The process with the payments, it was a long one. Finally everything was done, and now we've lost it."

A local group donated a wheelchair to Marlon, but the stolen chair fit him perfectly. The backpack in the chair also held all of Marlon's notes for his finals. He plans to attend the University of Illinois after graduation.

The Gurnee police department has no leads in the case, and suspects someone may have sold it for scrap metal.

Anyone with information is being asked to call the Gurnee police department at (847) 599-7000.

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News & Politics

Tags:

• Marlon Taping
• Wheelchair
• Cerebral Palsy
• Chicago
• Wheelchair Basketball
• Warren Township High School