A disabled Queens teen stayed merry Saturday despite the Christmas Day theft of her $6,000 custom wheelchair, as her outraged family ripped the heartless Grinch as “ inhumane” — and demanded the chair back.
“Please, give the wheelchair back — I need the chair for my daughter,” mom Antonia Martinez, 46, told The Post.
The family had kept Michelle’s bulky, electric chair covered in plastic and chained to the fence outside their Jackson Heights apartment because it’s too heavy to bring upstairs. On Christmas day, the family discovered the chain had been snipped and the chair stolen.
The teen suffers from scoliosis and the rare neurological disorder Rett Syndrome. She cannot speak, but communicates how she’s feeling through her facial expressions, and is remaining positive, said her twin sister, Giselle, who does not share the disability.
“She definitely understands; she hears what you say. She’s overall very cheerful,” despite the theft, Giselle said.
“Her facial expressions are very clear. She’s been OK. Very positive.”
Giselle and her parents are less forgiving.
“It’s very inhumane,” the twin said. “Because they don’t need it. I don’t understand why you would take it. It’s very inconsiderate. You’re not thinking of how it affects us, because we really need it.”
Michelle has been making due with a borrowed wheelchair since the theft, but it’s not the same, said her dad, Mario Molina, 47.
“Not good,” he said of the borrowed wheels. “It does not hold her head, does not have the support she needs.”
He added, “She needs the wheelchair in order to go to school. If she doesn’t have the wheelchair, she will not even be allowed inside the bus. This week, she’s on vacation, so it’s OK, but next week, school starts.”