Two-year-old Davy Barchet has been asking about his arm for the last few days.
The prosthetic left limb that the Winnipeg toddler uses regularly was stolen from his mother’s car on Tuesday.
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Lyra Barchet says she is thankful for her neighbours, who have been keeping an eye out for her son’s black and beige prosthetic.
And she’s hoping a $500 reward she has promised for anyone who finds it, or even for the thief, will get the arm back to Davy.
“I didn’t think much of it, except (on) Wednesday morning my car had been gone through,” the single mom said Friday with a shaky voice.
The prosthetic had been at the bottom of a red bag in the car.
“The person who did this took snacks, took my jacket, nothing really of value except for this arm.”
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Davy, who was born without his lower left arm and with a congenital heart defect, has been wearing the prosthetic since he was just over one.
Barchet said the cheeky boy with the charming grin is oblivious to the theft but is curious about why everyone keeps talking about his arm.
“He’s more like, ‘Arm, arm.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, your arm is gone,’” she said.
“We’ll get it tomorrow?” Davy has asked her.
A disheartened Barchet said she keeps telling him, “No.”
Then Davy goes about his day without a care in the world.
Barchet said she’s giving it a week until she undertakes getting a new arm, which comes with a price tag of $7,000 and weeks of waiting.
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“I think, ultimately, if I need to get it, it might be War Amps that helps cover the cost,” she said.
The whole ordeal has been quite stressful for the family, added Barchet, who works at a hospital while training to be a psychiatrist. She is in self-isolation now because of a sore throat and her dad is going through chemotherapy.
But Barchet said the support she has received from her community has been a bright light.
“He’s just like a cutie,” Barchet said. “Davy’s kind of like the street mascot in some ways. A lot of people know who he is, even if not by name, by sight. He’s just a really sweet kid and he waves to everybody and says, ‘Hello.’
“So everybody’s kind of like, ‘Oh, I know who that is. I’m going to go look on my street or my backyard.’”
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Barchet said she has reported the stolen prosthetic to police.
“At the end of the day, I think I won’t remember this as the horrible time that I lost Davy’s arm,” Barchet said.
“This is going to be that not-so-great time that I lost Davy’s arm and everybody kind of stepped up to try to help, even if we don’t find it.”
