Mother asks for public’s help after car stolen with baby’s medical equipment inside

ST. LOUIS (KMOV) -- It’s been nearly two weeks since Taylor Emm’s car was stolen from the Walmart parking lot in Maplewood, but the 22-year-old says it is still emotional to think about.

“I’m just sad about it, really, really sad,” said Emm.

It happened on the night of March 3. Emm, a new mother of a 15-month-old girl, says her 2011 Nissan Murano was stolen while she was inside Walmart before heading to her mother’s house.

“It was Friday night, grandma had her,” said Emm. “I was going in to get stuff for the baby, diapers, all that stuff for the week. I was in there only 40 minutes.”

Maplewood police shared surveillance video Thursday of the night it happened. A person can be faintly seen in the middle row of the parking lot looking through car windows. While the image is somewhat grainy, the suspect eventually gains access into Emm’s car and drives off with it.

“They confirm that a man was looking in windows, several other windows before mine. He gained access to mine at 9:40 p.m. and he pulled off the lot towards Hanley road at 9:42 p.m.,” she said.

When Emm finally walked out, she panicked when she saw a different car in her spot.

“That’s when I realize it’s gone. My car is gone,” said Emm.

Maplewood police tell News 4 they still haven’t been able to find the car. Emm says she has searched all over the city for it, to no avail.

“My car was my only way of making money. I Door Dash, Uber eats, Lyft, anything I can do right now,” said Emm.

Yet, it is what was inside her car that has more value to her and her family than the car itself. Her daughter Aaliyah’s medical equipment, which includes a therapy chair, a device for her g-tube and medication, were all inside the car.

“My daughter, she has a lot of doctor’s appointments. She has bilateral hip dysplasia and a g-tube, so her brain grows smaller than her skull does right now,” said Emm “Basically, her hips are born flat instead of curved, so she’s been put in a full body cast to shape her hips from her waist down.”

That therapy chair helps Aaliyah sit upright in the car and at home, which she uses for up to eight hours a day, and her g-tube equipment helps Emm read how much food to pump into her body.

“Both of those pieces were donated to us to leave the NICU because Medicaid does not approve or cover it,” she said.

Those devices alone could cost Emm around $10,000 to replace in addition to getting a new car.

“I have no way to get to and from appointments,” she said.

Right now, Aaliyah is staying mostly at her grandmother’s while Emm finds a way to recover her car and the equipment inside. She may have to replace the devices altogether.

“She has to be able to get to a hospital within three minutes if she is to pull her own g-tube out, and I can’t get her to that in that time with no car,” said Emm. “I think she’s better off with her currently until I can kind of figure out what I’m going to do for work and how I can replace the car.”

There is a GoFundMe created to help support Emm and her family with the expenses she could face since losing her car. Anyone with information on where her car can be located can contact Maplewood Police.

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