"I think it's very mean, stupid, I don't know, heartless I guess the word is," said Cynthia Knox, a theft victim.
Cynthia Knox is 71, an amputee who requires dialysis treatment. But on Thursday someone stole the wheelchair ramp from in front of her home in Yonkers. She considers that ramp a lifeline.
"It's my means of getting in and out to get to dialysis three times a week, to go to doctors' appointments, to go out shopping once in a while with my other daughter, it's very important, otherwise I'm stuck in here," Cynthia Knox said.
The folding aluminum ramp had sat in front of the home for five years. It cost the family nearly a thousand dollars.
"My emotions were everywhere yesterday, I was sad, I was mad, upset, I wanted to cry. How could someone do this? I just don't understand. How could someone do this to someone that's in a wheelchair?
Knox made it to dialysis on Friday with three men lifting the chair to get it down the three front steps.
There is a happy ending. As word of Knox's predicament spread. City Hall got involved and contractors were preparing to build a temporary wood structure, but ultimately the landlord of the multifamily house agreed to purchase a new aluminum ramp.
"I think it's great. Whenever the city is willing to do something, I think it's wonderful," Cynthia Knox said.
