Thief takes inspiration of man who lost his leg

NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. (WABC) -- For Max Gomez, it's the shoes. He buys them online - mostly Jordans. But 13 pair of the 30 he owns were stolen Friday by a thief who broke into his family's New Rochelle home.

The shoes are a comfortable fit for his prosthetic foot and leg. Two years ago, while competing in motocross, Gomez, 20, fell and lost his right leg below the knee and foot.

While going through recovery and learning to walk on his new leg, Gomez discovered the shoes.

"The least that I spent on a pair of sneakers was about $220, so for them to take 13 of them was a lot," he said Thursday.

"I would see the prosthetic and that's kind of depressing, and then I would look down and see a nice pair of sneakers or an expensive pair of Jordans," he said.

While the family was away last Friday, someone broke in and took several shoes. Gomez said that he thinks it was someone who targeted him, knowing what to take They even knew how to carry out the shoes.

The thief took "one of the bags that I keep some of my prosthetic equipment in and dumped it out on the bed, and they used that bag to take even more," said Gomez.

Gomez would like to see the shoes recovered. He is moving forward now with new plans for college.

"Just the whole breaking in for these," he said, "is just ridiculous."