KATU-TV(STAYTON, Ore.) — A 91-year-old woman from Marion County, Oregon, has become confined to a chair in her home after her wheelchair and walker were allegedly stolen.
Edythe De La Rosa, who has outlived her husband and six children, is feeling lonelier and more helpless than ever because of the incident, ABC affiliate KATU in Oregon reported.
“I don’t know, I don’t know what to do,” De La Rosa told KATU. “I don’t understand how anyone – Christian or not – how could they do that to a woman in my condition and of my age?”
De La Rosa believes her mobile aids were stolen sometime this past weekend during a storm. She said she had put her wheelchair and walker into her van parked outside her house just in case she needed to evacuate.
“I’m an old timer, she said. “When something’s going to happen, you prepare.”
Fortunately, the storm came and went without causing any significant damage. But De La Rosa was devastated when she realized her van — along with her wheelchair and walker — was gone.
“I can’t do much — my hands don’t work, I’ve had a stroke,” she told KATU. “Why do that to me? What did I do to them?”
De La Rosa said her van, wheelchair and walker were priceless to her. She explained that she has been living on Social Security and had to save for over a year to afford the items.
De La Rosa added that the day she got the walker, she felt she was in “seventh heaven” because she was finally able to get around by herself and tend to her flowers without help.
But now, she’s confined to a chair in her home and completely dependent on her caretaker.
De La Rosa’s church community has since started a crowdfunding campaign to try and raise enough money to buy her a new van, wheelchair and walker, KATU reported.
ABC News was not immediately able to reach De La Rosa nor the organizer of the crowdfunding campaign for additional comment.
The Marion County Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
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