Pair grateful for gifts after theft of wheelchair ramp
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Cheryl Jahier is touched by the outpouring of generosity from people who, like her, could not believe that on Monday morning, someone stole a wheelchair ramp from her Kaimuki garage.
She's also a little embarrassed.
"I feel so bad for people to feel obliged to correct someone else's wrong," said the mother of four children, two of whom use wheelchairs. "I didn't expect them to do that. I just wanted to get the word out there so that police could find them."
Not ones to depend on the kindness of strangers, Robert and Cheryl Jahier have seen that the aloha spirit is a force impossible to control. In the past 24 hours, gifts have been channeled through a donations drive led by a morning radio show. A staffer for the station said the donations drive has ended.
Today, Cheryl Jahier drove down to KHVH studios, where morning host Rick Hamada had collected checks totalling $490 from people who had heard her on-air interview the day before. Coincidentally, Jahier said, that's just $4 more than what the family paid for the special collapsible ramp 2 1/2 months ago.
But the Jahiers are not cashing the checks just yet: Police have told them they have leads on the culprits, she said, so they may get their own ramp returned and then won't need the money.
Police yesterday said there have been no arrests.
Jahier's two daughters, 15-year-old Renisha and 7-year-old Etalyn, both suffer from Leigh's disease, a degenerative nervous disorder that has left Renisha legally blind, mildly retarded and dependent on a motorized wheelchair. Etalyn's case is milder, and she uses a hand-operated wheelchair that's more lightweight than her sister's model, which is too heavy to remove from the family van without help.
Since the theft, the family has been forced to use a makeshift ramp that Robert Jahier built out of plywood and Velcro, which is not as safe as the professionally-built 5 foot rig that folds in half and weighs about 50 pounds.
Jahier first realized it was missing when she couldn't find it in its usual place near the van in the garage on Tuesday when she needed it to pick up both daughters from their after-school arts class. That's when her neighbor told her that around 7:30 the previous morning, he had seen someone drive up in a red Jeep Wrangler with a black canvas top, load up the ramp and drive away.
"He said, 'I thought that the ramp needed to be fixed and they were picking it up,' " she said. "What was ironic was I was in the house, and I heard this person drive all the way in."
Jahier said he thought the driver was picking up the neighbor.
The robber is described as 5 feet 10, 160 to 180 pounds, 25 to 30 years old, with wavy blond hair and a fair complexion. The neighbor told the family that a girl was sitting in the Jeep's passenger seat.
People with information may call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300, or *CRIME on a cellular phone.
