3 year old's walker taken from home

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) - A family in Newport News is asking for your help after they say their 3-year-old son's walker went missing.

The McGinnis family lives on post at Fort Eustis. The walker was left outside and when they went to get it Sunday morning it was gone.

Gavin McGinnis, 3, loves nothing more than to spend his Sundays on the couch watching his favorite cartoons. He's just like any other kid and even an illness can't slow him down.

"Gavin has cerebral palsy, so he uses the walker to walk," said mother Lora McGinnis.

The disease won't allow him to walk on his own. Gavin uses a walker to get around. Saturday, that walker was stolen from the front of his home.

"We don't know that anybody has stolen it," McGinnis added. "What we think might have happened is somebody thought it was trash."

The walker was accidentally left outside next to a power pole. To make matters worse, next week Gavin is going in for surgery on his spine. The surgery is a step toward helping him walk on his own, but until then he relies on his walker.

"It's part of his physical therapy," McGinnis said. "It's going to be part of his rehabilitation after surgery. For him, he's everyday out running around. He needs it. Maybe they just didn't realize what it was. How important it is. I have no idea why anybody would do that?"

The family filed a report with military police. They're hoping whoever took the walker will put it back where they found it.