After her daughter’s $10,000 communication device went missing, one California mom took action.

Patty Mulligan’s daughter Hedy, 11, has an intellectual disability and is nonverbal. In order to communicate she relies on a DynaVox device programed with words and pictures she can select on a touch screen.

But on Thanksgiving day, the device was accidentally left on a curb in a San Jose, Calif. neighborhood. Mulligan hung posters in the area, but had no luck recovering the $10,000 communication tool.

That is, until she searched Craigslist last week. She found an ad for a device that sounded a lot like Hedy’s selling for $3,500. So, Mulligan called the seller and asked lots of questions.

Confident that the device was her daughter’s, Mulligan arranged to meet the seller at a flea market the next day. But she sent the police instead. They matched the serial number and took the seller — who had said he found the device at a storage locker sale — into custody.

For Hedy, having the communication tool back is quite a relief. “She kept looking for it. She would look at every computer screen in the house and if we pulled out our iPhone, she would try to grab it,” Mulligan told the San Jose Mercury News. To read more click here.

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