Family Pleads For Return Of Stolen iPad With Last Video Of Boy Who Died From Brain Cancer
MINNNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A Bloomington family is looking for help in finding something irreplaceable.
In mid-February, someone broke into Topher Braddock's business, Akagi Jiu Jitsu, and took the family's iPad. It held the last images and video they had to remember of their 12-year-old son, Grey Braddock, who lost his battle with brain cancer last summer.
"Someone broke in and they took the TV, and the music stuff, and the tablet. And first thing that popped into my mind is that the tablet was pretty important to me," Braddock said.
He knows the material things can be replaced, but it's the empty bracket where the family's iPad use to sit that reminds him of what was really lost.
"I just kept thinking about that video and how it means so much to our family," Braddock said. "We spent the last two years fighting brain cancer, and in June, on my birthday, he passed away."
Just two months ago, while fumbling through the iPad, they uncovered video of Grey.
"We were in here and my wife pics up the tablet, and she says, 'Look at this,' and it was a video of Grey, and based on where we were, it was right before we found out he was sick," Braddock said.
The video was irreplaceable, and they knew it, but they felt a stronger pull to leave it where it was found.
"So we put it back down, and I always knew it was there. It was kind of cool knowing that Grey was right there whenever I wanted to," Braddock said.
More importantly that video was a way for his youngest sister to have a connection with her brother.
"His little sister was born during his fight for cancer, and she never knew him before that, and this was something that we were going to get to show her as she got older, and she heard about who this person was," Braddock said.
He hopes someone will have a heart and return the video that was taken.
"If somebody saw it and they walked in and handed it to me, I'd shake their hand and thank them, and give them a hug," Braddock said.
The break in was reported to Bloomington police, but the Braddocks say all would be forgiven if they could just get that video of their son Grey back.