Disabled vet's lost wheelchair is found

A Holbrook veteran's missing custom wheelchair, decorated with an embroidered Purple Heart, has been recovered.

Suffolk police said the $3,000 aluminum wheelchair was discovered Thursday in a wooded area -- dirty but intact.

The wheelchair, built for Christopher Levi, 28, after he lost both legs in a 2008 roadside bombing in Iraq, was taken a week ago from outside his Mollie Boulevard home.

A passing motorist spotted the wheelchair Thursday afternoon near Patchogue-Holbrook Road and Broadway Avenue, less than a half-mile from Levi's home, police said.

Levi, who depends on the wheelchair to get around when he's not wearing his prosthetic limbs, said he was happy to get it back -- and put an end to the public outcry.

"I was a little surprised by how strong a reaction people had to this story," he said. "People have really been emotionally touched."

One of the best responses, the former Army corporal said, was the call he got from Mitch Modell of Modell's Sporting Goods. Modell had arranged to get Levi a jersey autographed by Victor Cruz, star player for the Super Bowl-bound Giants.

SEE PHOTOSCpl. Christopher Levi

"I was so touched by people big and small," Levi said.

The veteran had left the wheelchair in his driveway Jan. 19 while he went on errands in his car, which he operates with hand controls. When he returned 45 minutes later, the wheelchair was gone.

The wheelchair was specially made for Levi at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Md.

It wasn't clear Thursday how the wheelchair came to be left in the woods. Police said earlier that neighbors know Levi typically leaves his wheelchair in the driveway while he's gone for short periods, but a passerby might have thought the chair was abandoned.

Levi has been using a loaner wheelchair, and said his old one was starting to wear out. But the Purple Heart patch on the back had sentimental value to his mother, Debbie, who had given it to her "hero."

Debbie Levi said the family is relieved that the wheelchair was returned. "We're just glad that this is over, and we can move on with our lives."

With Martin Evans