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LAYTON — Police are looking for the teens who targeted a woman in a wheelchair in what appears to be a case of bullying that escalated into robbery, police say.
Kamryn Bentley, a 39-year-old Layton woman, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis about two years ago and was eventually confined to a wheelchair. She relies on that wheelchair to get everywhere.
"Without my wheelchair, I'd be lost," Bentley said.
Late Friday night, she went to a K-Mart about a mile and a half away from her apartment to pick up some things for herself and two kids. On her way home she ran into trouble.
"These kids went by in this van and they were screaming, "Hey, vegetable!" and lots of swear words and stuff mixed in with that," Bentley said.
But it didn't end there. Bentley said two teenage boys jumped out of that minivan and surrounded her.
"I was just yelling at him, 'Just leave me alone!'" she said.
The boys taunted her more, she said, then knocked a flashlight out of her hand and and robbed her.
I was like, why? I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything to these kids. I don't know who they are.
–Kamryn Bentley
"I had a shopping bag over the headrest of my wheelchair ... and they just took off," Bentley said. "It had everything."
Inside the bag were the items Bentley bought at the storeand her wallet, which contained her ID, credit cards and more than $200 from a paycheck she had just cashed.
"That's all the money that I have," Bentley said. "I was like, why? I didn't do anything. I didn't do anything to these kids. I don't know who they are."
She says the same teens have likely taunted her before, but it's never gone this far. She's afraid for others who might be being targeted by the same group.
"They're going to say that to somebody, to a kid; it's going to destroy their whole entire world," Bentley said. "It's bad enough to have to rely on a wheelchair, and be in a wheelchair, without somebody that doesn't even know you saying all these hurtful things."
Since it was so dark outside, Bentley doesn't have much of a description of the teens. She says one of the boys was tall and skinny, with sandy blond hair and wearing a hoodie.
The minivan they were driving was an older model, dark blue or dark green.
Anyone with information is asked to call Layton police at 801-497-8300.
An online fundraiser has been set up on behalf of Kam Bentley.
*KSL.com
