Bionic Arm Teen Claimed Was Stolen Found At Subway
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Sammy Luther insisted his bionic arm had been stolen out of the family car in Pilsen earlier this month, when he couldn't find it after an acting and modeling lesson. It turned out, he just left it at Subway.
On Oct. 18, his mother had driven Sammy to Pilsen for an acting and modeling lesson. When they got home to North Aurora, Sammy noticed the arm was missing. He claimed he'd left it in the car during his lesson, so his parents thought they had left the car unlocked, and someone swiped it.
"I learned never to trust a 16-year-old, right?" Sammy's father, Derrick Luther, said after police found the arm at the Subway at 1252 S. Halsted St. "He told us that he didn't bring it into the Subway at all. He said it was in the car, so we never followed up with that Subway restaurant. We probably should have."
Derrick said the family got a call from a student at the Paul Mitchell Beauty School in Pilsen, who had seen employees at the nearby Subway playing with the arm on the day it went missing.
"I'm not sure why the manager of that Subway, in particular, didn't notify the Police Department," he said. "Obviously, I take responsibility for not following up with the restaurant itself."
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Derrick said, after he got the call, he contacted the detectives on the case, and they went to the Subway and employees there turned over the arm after some "creative questioning."
"It was in their back room, in their storage. They claim they were waiting for somebody to show up and claim it," he said.
Sammy was born without a left arm and hand. he got the $95,000 bionic arm a year ago.
Derrick said his son usually takes the prosthetic arm off when he's eating, and he apparently forgot it at Subway in this case.
"We get into the habit of day-to-day stuff, where we forget what we do. We just do things by habit," he said. "He'd just better be more aware of what he's doing. I haven't talked to him yet. He's at school, so his promise to me better be 'Yeah, I'll keep better care of it, and keep my eyes on it.'"
Derrick said he thinks, without the media attention the family got after reporting the arm stolen, they wouldn't have gotten it back. He said he'll pick up the arm from the Near West District police station as soon as he can, and then get it repaired, since it appears from photographs that some of the fingers have been damaged.
