LONDON, ONT -- It's a happy ending for four-year-old Natalie Ouellette after her missing custom walker was found by a maintenance worker who was keeping it safe.

Natalie, who is from St. Thomas Ont., has cerebral palsy and uses the custom yellow Crocodile Walker (pictured above) to help her walk, but it went missing during a recent trip to London, Ont.

Now thanks to the public's help in spreading the story the walker has been found and is being returned to the family.

Natalie has recently undergone Selective Dorsal Rhizotomy (SDR) surgery in Toronto at Sick Kids Hospital.

The surgery may help her walk on her own one day, but while she undergoes intense rehabilitation she needs her custom walker to get around.

The family was on a weekend pass back to the London region to visit family when they decided to take Natalie for ice cream on Sunday at the Marble Slab location on Wonderland Road South.

The walker was left outside and sometime between 2:30 and 3 p.m. it went missing.

It turns out that it was found by a maintenance worker at the plaza who took it to their shop to keep it safe. When they saw the story of the missing walker online they immediately recognized it and contacted the family.

The walker is worth roughly $1,500 and being off work for months in order to be in Toronto with Natalie means it would have been costly to replace for the family.

Stolen Walker

 

The family was loaned a walker while they searched for Natalie's missing walker.

The family says they are thrilled and wish to thank the community for sharing their story online to help find the walker.

With reporting from CTV's Celine Zadorsky.