MARSHFIELD, MASS. (WHDH) - A Marshfield man is facing a larceny charge after authorities say he stole a young nonverbal boy’s iPad.
Nolan Redden, 34, was arrested at his home Thursday after he allegedly stole an iPad belonging to 11-year-old Aiden Glynn who uses the device to communicate.
Glynn was playing with his therapist Lexie Parson at the Martinson Elementary School playground Wednesday when that lifeline was taken from him.
Related: Suspect accused of stealing nonverbal Marshfield boy’s iPad taken into custody
Surveillance footage shows a man walk up to the chainlink fence where the iPad was hanging and then walk off with it in hand.
Prosecutors say Redden noticed the device at a playground where Glynn was enjoying himself with his personal care assistant on Wednesday.
They say Redden put the iPad in his car and then returned to the basketball court to continue playing.
“The person playing basketball, the defendant, goes to his car, a person goes over, approaches him and asks if he has seen an iPad,” prosecutor Carolan Blackwood said. “He indicates he has not and then leaves.”
Glynn’s family says they are very careful with the device which they have marked so that everybody would know it belongs to a child with autism who desperately needs it.
Marshfield police said they were able to use enhanced security footage from the school to catch the suspect in the act and then identify his license plate number.
Redden initially refused to speak to police but eventually admitted to taking the device and throwing it in a dumpster outside the Briteway Car Wash located on Plain Street.
The iPad was promptly returned to Gynn and his family though it did have a small crack in the screen and needed to be sanitized.
A friend of Glynn’s posted his story to Facebook garnering more than 1,000 shares and $650 raised to purchase a new device.
“They don’t even know him but they were so moved by his story,” Parsons said. “That really just shows how great Marshfield is.”
That money will be donated to someone in need.
Redden has been ordered to stay away from the school.
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