MIMS, Fla. -- Police are searching for a thief who stole a $4,400 wheelchair from an 11-year-old boy who has scoliosis and other illnesses leaving him unable to walk.

Michael Thorne and his family said they were at a soccer tournament in Jacksonville when someone grabbed the boy's special wheelchair out of their vehicle.

"I was just in shock," mother Thea Thorne said. "I just couldn't believe that someone would possibly take a wheelchair. That chair was his ability to get out and about and go on walks and go to his doctor's appointments and to go soccer games."

The family had fought with the insurance company to obtain the wheelchair, according to the report.

"For my son, it makes me feel terrible because it's something that was taken away from him that we worked so hard to get and now we lost it," father Van Thorne said. "It is just one of a kind, so he's got to go around without it and it really makes it hard."

"How could you possibly think that this is right to do this to a little boy?" Thea Thorne said.

Thorne's insurance company and the hotel said there is nothing they can do about the stolen wheelchair.

The family said they are hoping police can find the person responsible.

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