A thief recently stole one boy’s livelihood right out from under his bedroom window.

“He came upstairs and asked me ‘where’s my bike’ thinking I might have moved it,” said Pam Gomsrud, mother of 14-year-old Aaron.

The bike was locked up to a staircase just downstairs from the Gomsruds’ second story 8th Avenue condo. But when they woke up the morning of Jan. 11 the bike was gone.

When someone cut the cable lock and walked away with Aaron’s prized ride they stole something more.

“How dare you,” Gomsrud wrote in a letter to the Whidbey News-Times. “Not only did you steal a little of his freedom, you stole a lot of health benefits.”

Aaron has Cystic Fibrosis. The 14-year-old was diagnosed five months ago after months of what doctors initially believed to simply be allergies — until polyps appeared in his sinuses.

The bike — a bright blue BMX style bike with the white letters “GT Zone” — had spiffy new pegs and pedals. It was a brand new replacement for a bike that Aaron had owned for close to three years.

“He rode that bike until it fell apart,” Gomsrud said. “We took it to the thrift store so it could find a home where a dad could keep working on it.”

Riding the bike around town, to school, down to city beach and to the skate park was Aaron’s main form of exercise.

Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disease affecting the way cells work that occurs in approximately one in 2,500 people. CF creates an imbalance in sodium chloride exchange that leads to cells that do not hold water, making the mucous outside the cell thicker and stickier than usual. It effects the respiratory and digestive systems and can pose other physical problems.

The lungs of Cystic Fibrosis patients are rated by deterioration: mild, moderate and severe. Aaron’s have become moderately deteriorated.

While there is no cure for Cystic Fibrosis, Gomsrud said exercise is one of the ways her son can maintain his stamina and keep his lungs clear.

“Riding his bike and breathing in all that fresh air, even in this cold, has been a huge part of that,” Gomsrud said. “It helps him feel better and keeps him smiling, even while he’s coughing his head off.”

Gomsrud hopes that whoever stole the bike or anyone who knows where the bike is will help return it. If not, she hopes they realize this was about more than just a bike.

The single-mom is on widow’s Social Security and is frustrated that she can’t afford to buy her son a new bike, especially since she shouldn’t have to.

And if Aaron somehow gets a new bike, the family’s sense of security is gone and his mother is wondering if it’s worth it.

“I’ve been looking on the Internet for better ways to lock it up and even at bike alarms, but that’s even more money on top of the cost of a new bike,” Gomsrud said.

She hopes that even if the thief doesn’t have the kindness of heart to return the bike, that they think about paying penance by donating the $200 it cost to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at cff.org or Seattle Children’s Hospital at seattlechildrens.org.

“They should be ashamed of themselves because what they did was wrong,” Aaron said.