At 5-years-old, Evelynn Biondo has the cognitive ability of a 3-month-old. And for her mother Alicia, things got even worse earlier this week. Alicia discovered someone had made off with Evelyn's wheelchair ramp in front of their house.
"Why would you do that to somebody? It's a ramp it's not any piece of metal, it's something she needs to get in and out of the house. It's a necessity," Biondo said.
Eyewitness News last met Alicia and Evelyn in June of 2007. When Evelynn was an 11-week-old infant, she was violently shaken and kicked by her own father, who's now serving a 16-year sentence, for nearly killing her.
So this week's heartless theft only adds insult to injury.
"It's just horrible. I don't know how somebody could sleep at night, knowing they did that," Michelle Walz, Evelynn's grandmother said.
Police believe someone, casing the neighborhood for scrap metal, grabbed the portable aluminum ramp, which could go for about $50 at a scrap yard.
But as they search for the thief, neighbors are rallying behind them. Thursday morning, Dave Lohr and his son built a temporary ramp at the family's front door.
"This is lowlife stuff. Lowlife. There's plenty of stuff, you can go out and collect cans and make the same money they made on this thing right here," Lohr said.
"When you have something horrible happen to you and then something also amazing happen to you, it balances out and give you back hope. There is still good left in the world, even though people do stuff like this," Biondo said.
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