HOUSTON – A Paralympic athlete training for the 2021 summer games is asking the public’s help after someone stole her everyday wheelchair.
Jazmin Almlie-Ryan has a sports chair she uses to train within her Cypress neighborhood. While she trains she leaves her everyday chair in her driveway so it’s easy to switch into. However, when she returned home at around noon on Wednesday, it was gone.
“The problem is that I can’t go anywhere in the chairs that I’m in. I can’t get into my house. I can’t get to the bathroom,” said Almlie-Ryan.
A neighbors’ camera caught a few seconds of the theft on surveillance cameras, but the clip is not long enough to identify the suspect.
“Unfortunately, I can’t see the person, and then all of a sudden you see my chair in the back of the truck,” Almlie-Ryan said.
Almlie-Ryan is paralyzed from the waist down but despite that became a Paralympic athlete and part of team USA’S shooting team. She competed in Rio in 2016 and is currently training for the games in Tokyo.
She told KPRC 2 she is fortunate to have a backup chair but knows others aren’t so lucky.
“It’s a slap in the face for not only myself but for my community as well. I’m a huge disability advocate and so I think about if this could happen to me it could happen to somebody else,” Almlie-Ryan said.
She has filed a police report with the Harris County Precinct 4 Constables. If you have any information you’re asked to call their department and report it.