Aimee Copeland was stirring the makings for a chicken pot pie Saturday night when she discovered “Sylvia,” her $100,000 customized van, had been stolen from in front of her home.
“I just kept stirring,” she said Monday, in particularly good cheer after learning her van was found.
But while she didn’t let the theft ruin Saturday night’s dinner, the theft in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward may have proven vexing if Copeland wasn’t so determined. The 27-year-old woman lost several limbs to a flesh-eating disease in 2012 and she needed the specialized van to get to her new internship at the Shepherd Center.
She got started early Monday in her motorized wheelchair for the 5 mile journey to her new job. It took 75 minutes.
“The sidewalks are a little rough in Atlanta,” she said.
By Monday afternoon, however, she got good the news. The Atlanta Police had found her Honda Odyssey in an abandoned school yard in Atlanta and also the specialized titanium wheelchair that was inside. She was grateful to the thieves for not scrapping it.
Doctors amputated both of Copeland's hands, her left leg and right foot after she contracted a flesh-eating bacteria May 1, 2012. The Snellville native's leg became infected after she was injured while on a homemade zip line along the Little Tallapoosa River near Carrollton.
She fell to the water and rocks below, cutting her calf on a stone, which allowed bacteria to enter the wound.
At the time, she was a graduate student at the University of West Georgia and later she moved into a customized 2000-square-foot addition to her parent’s house. The van was a gift from Steve Rayman of Steve Rayman Chevrolet and was modified for her use by Chris Collins of R and R Mobility.
She is currently getting a master’s degree in social work from Valdosta State University and is finishing a move into the Fourth Ward home. The house is closer her internship at the Shepherd Center, a rehabilitation center where Copeland spent time after the amputations.
“As much as I love my parents, I don’t want to live with them for the rest of my life,” Copeland told Emory Medicine in a story highlighting her use of high-tech prosthetic hands. “I want to move out and be independent.”
She is not giving up on Atlanta, although police warned her that Odyssey vans are prone to theft. She does, however, plan to install surveillance cameras at her new home.
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