SANTA ANA – Nearly a week after someone stole a 4-year-old girl’s wheelchair, the custom chair turned up Friday swaddled in plastic outside the family’s home.

The girl’s mom cried. The police came to take fingerprints. And Milagros Perez, who was born without legs, happily rolled up and down the driveway in her special chair.

“I was so grateful and wanted to tell the police and everyone who cared not to worry anymore because it was back, ” said Rosa Isela Perez, Milagros’ mother.

The story of Milagros, whose name means “miracles” in Spanish, and her missing wheelchair touched people across Southern California during Thanksgiving week.

Donors came forward with offers of money and other wheelchairs. Joyce Brandman, a Beverly Hills philanthropist and president of the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation, gave the family a $10,000 check to cover the full cost of the chair.

On Friday afternoon Brandman said she wants the family to keep the donation and use the money for Milagros’ care.

Brandman said the story of the little girl without legs touched her heart. She saw a news segment on television just before she was about to start cooking her Thanksgiving meal.

“It didn’t take me even a minute to know that I needed to help this family,” she said. “This family was desperately in need. I have a wonderful life and we’re all supposed to give back. It doesn’t matter how much or to who.”

The girl’s wheelchair disappeared last weekend from the family’s home on South Flower Street. On Tuesday, the family reported the theft to the Santa Ana Police Department, which set up an account to raise money for a replacement wheelchair.

Early Friday, Milagros’ father spied Milagros’ chair poking out a garbage can outside the apartment just before 7 a.m.

“Ever since they stole [the chair] I haven’t been able to sleep well so I was awake when he came to tell me,” Rosa Isela Perez said in Spanish Friday morning outside her apartment.

The chair was not damaged or dirty, but Milagros’ ‘Frozen’ backpack was missing. Perez said the backpack could be replaced and was just grateful the chair had been returned. “It was wrapped in a blue plastic bag but clean,” Perez said.

Her husband, Antonio Perez-Sanchez, arrives home in the early morning hours from his newspaper delivery job.

“I was walking up to the house and all the trash cans were lined up and I see something sticking out of one,” he said. “I thought ‘That looks like a chair but can’t be the one.’”

It was.

On Friday afternoon, Milagros was strapped in her chair and wheeled her way toward the police officers standing on the sidewalk outside.

Santa Ana police investigators took DNA and fingerprint samples, trying to determine who took the chair, Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. The motive remains a mystery.

Life had never been easy for Milagros and her family. They lost their house of 16 years more than two years ago and have been struggling to make ends meet. Milagros also has two older brothers.

Perez-Sanchez, Milagros’ father works two jobs. Her mother stays at home to care for Milagros, who has other health issues in addition to having no legs.

“I have never wanted to depend on the help of others to take care of my family,” Perez said, through tears. “But I’m so grateful to everyone who helped us.”

After the family’s plea to the community to help find the wheelchair on Wednesday, two wheelchairs appeared at her home in addition to the $10,000 check. The Santa Ana Police Department also gave Milagros’ family a Christmas tree and a full Thanksgiving dinner.

Perez said she’d like to meet Brandman and thank her in person for the donation, which she plans on putting toward a car better suited to transport Milagros in her chair. Brandman later said she’d like to meet Milagros, too.

“I reacted to this little girl. She was so sweet and I’m hoping to arrange for us to meet.”

Milagros’ mother also wants to donate one of the wheelchairs given to her to another family in need. It’s a full-sized chair and far too big for Milagros.

“If there’s someone who needs this chair now, they should have it,” she said.

Most of all, Perez said she is thankful that her daughter won’t have yet another limitation now that her main form of mobility has been returned.

“I’m just glad that God touched the heart of the person who took it,” she said.