A CUSTOM-MADE tricycle is thought to have been brazenly stolen
from an autistic boy and his family on Sunday morning.
Ten-year-old Joseph
Males was inside his home with father Stephen when thieves are thought to have
struck — between 8am and 10.30am.
Joseph’s bike — specially made to cater for
his condition — was taken from their front yard, where Joseph’s sister Lianna
had been riding it earlier that day.
Joseph’s mother Misty only noticed the
bike was missing as she left the house for a mid-morning walk.
“I thought, ‘I
didn’t have to do up the clip on the gate…’ Then I realised the bike wasn’t in
the yard.”
The family called police, asked their neighbours and people
walking past the house, but the much-loved and well-used three-wheeler has not
turned up.
“Joseph has gone looking for it… it’s tricky because he’s
non-verbal so he doesn’t understand why he can’t find it,” Ms Males said.
For more on this story, see Friday’s edition of The Guardian (5/7/13).
