Police return stolen specialized chair to disabled Oakland teen

OAKLAND, Calif. - A 17-year-old Oakland boy with muscular dystrophy, who has been stuck inside his home for a week after his specialized chair was stolen from his front yard, will finally be able to leave the house.

Chair found in San Leandro

What we know:

The San Leandro Police Department told KTVU on Wednesday that the chair had been located, though they did not disclose where it was found. Officers returned the chair to the teen, TJ, that afternoon.

Teen stuck inside for 8 days

TJ’s mother, Tamika Lyles, previously explained that the evacuation chair was critical to her son’s mobility. She used it to help him down the stairs outside their home and into a van that transported him to and from school.

Lyles said she left the chair in the gated yard of their home in the Fruitvale-Foothill neighborhood and brought its battery inside to charge.

When she returned, the chair was gone.

The backstory:

"He left at 8:10. It was stolen at 9:10," Lyles told KTVU. "The evacuation chair is very important. He has muscular dystrophy, and he can't get out of the house without it."

Without it, Lyles said she had no way to lift him.

When TJ returned from school the day the chair was stolen, three friends helped carry him back inside. Since then, he has been unable to attend school, go to doctors’ appointments, or even step outside for fresh air.

"I’m quite sure he wants to go to school. He wants to get out of the house and do things," Lyles said. " She also worried about how they would evacuate in the event of a fire or other emergency.

Dig deeper:

TJ has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which, according to the National Institutes of Health, is one of the most severe forms of inherited muscular dystrophy and primarily affects boys.

Lyles said the family received the chair about a year ago and that it had been invaluable in helping her transport her son.

Lyles suspects the thief was an older woman based on the video, although it was grainy.

She also put up fliers in the neighborhood and posted on the social networking site Nextdoor in hopes that someone might recognize the stolen chair, which was inoperable without its battery.

Many who read her plea were incensed.

"How low can they go!" one user commented on NextDoor.

"Got to be some sort of lowlife to STEAL a specialized chair!!!!" another person responded.

Lyles feared that a replacement could have taken as long as six weeks, which meant TJ would have been confined to the house until it came.

"People just stealing stuff for no reason," she said. "You don’t even know what you took or how valuable it is to someone."