A Lehigh Acres mother needs your help.
Someone stole her cell phone and she wants it back. Maria Maldonado spends all day and night caring for her dying son. She tells us he probably won’t make it to his 13th birthday in August. That is why she needs the phone – for comfort when he’s gone.
Maldonado’s 12-year-old son, Ethan, is her first and only priority. Ethan has brain cancer and may lose the battle any day now after a two-year fight.
Maldonado has pictures and videos from happier times on that cell phone — when her son was healthy. But now, those captured moments are gone.
“That’s the hardest part. These are the memories that were stolen on that phone,” said Maldonado.
Maldonado says a thief broke into a relative’s car Friday in the parking lot of WalMart in Lehigh Acres. She filed a report with the Lee County Sheriff’s Office.
Maldonado served in the United States Marine Corps; even Ethan is an honorary Marine.
That phone also has numbers of active soldiers and veterans; all who Maldonado says want to be there for Ethan’s last day.
The phone is a black LG Optimus with a blue rubber case.
We are working to see if there is surveillance video of the break-in. Maybe that could help deputies identify who is responsible.