Six-year-old Alex Bean can't walk or speak because of a neurological condition called cerebellar hypoplasia, but his parents say they know what's on his mind. And he was not happy after his prize mode of transportation disappeared.
"I think he'd be mad," dad Jim Bean said. "I think he wants his wagon back. It's a little kid toy, come on."
Mom Tracy Bean says she used the large red wagon to take Alex and his toys for walks around town.
"We use it every single day," Tracy said. "It's really Alex's only mode of transportation."
But the wagon was stolen early Tuesday morning in an incident caught by the family's surveillance cameras. The video showed two women opening the Bean's front gate, and one of them hurled the wagon over their white picket fence before they both fled.
On Friday, after news media aired reports of the video, Tracy Bean says one of the women came to her house, apologized and dropped off a new wagon for Alex. The woman told her that she and her friend took the wagon and were riding it down the street before abandoning it somewhere.
Tracy said the woman, who she did not want to identify, was very sincere, and she accepted her apology.
Along with the brand new wagon, the woman also gave her a written letter of apology and a stuffed animal for Alex.
Alex had been using his wheelchair to get around for the last few days, which his family says is a poor substitute for the freedom of the wagon.
"The wheelchair is so handicapped, you know?" Jim Bean said. "You look at my son, he's handicapped, he's in a wheelchair. When he's in the wagon, he's a little more normal, you know? He's looking around, he's not strapped in, sitting up tight."
