Last Tuesday, on his 24th birthday, Ranjit Steiner learned that someone had broken into his car and stolen several items, including his prosthetic running leg, valued at $30,000. A Paralympic hopeful, Steiner cannot train without his running leg, which is of great value to him but essentially useless to anyone else, because it’s built specifically for his body.

The thief shattered the window of Steiner’s new car, which was parked near his home in San Francisco’s Mission District. In addition to the prosthetic limb, the thief made off with a laptop and some starting blocks, some time between 8:00 p.m. Monday and 9:00 a.m. Tuesday.

Steiner had his walking leg in his house but had left his running leg in his car. Though the leg is valued at $30,000, Steiner told Runner’s World Newswire, “There’s no real black market for [prosthetic legs].”

“The whole prosthesis is fairly customized,” Steiner said. “Unless your leg is exactly the same shape and size as mine, it’s not going to [fit].”

Steiner played football and did track in high school, but his athletic career had to be put on hold for several years when he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right leg at age 15. He underwent chemotherapy, but he suffered numerous complications with his leg, including multiple staph infections.

He decided to have his leg amputated after he finished his freshman year at the University of Oregon. The surgery was a relief to Steiner, and it breathed new life into his athletic career.

“Every day, I set new goals to walk and walk farther, and then run, and run farther—just getting back to being a regular athlete,” Steiner said of his life following the surgery. “The first day I put on my leg, I tried to go as hard and as far as I possibly could before I just had to take it off. The whole process has been that way, every day, trying to push it a little harder. Now I’m at the point where I don’t think about my leg or anything. I just kind of put it on and go start my day like anybody else.”

Until he gets a new leg, Steiner is using his walking leg to do yoga, swim, cycle, lift weights, and do plyometrics.

“It’s not really the same as getting out there and running,” Steiner said.

Steiner is eager to get back to training because the outdoor track season is rapidly approaching, and he has big goals. At last year’s U.S. Paralympic Track & Field Championships, Steiner finished third in the 200 meters. He hopes to represent the U.S. at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

He acknowledges that he still has a long way to go, but that’s part of the reason the 2015 season is so important to him.

“Every year I’ve gotten better, and I was hoping this year would be another year of improvement, and then next year [I’d] really get after it and make the team, hopefully,” Steiner said.

Steiner is hopeful that a replacement leg will be covered by insurance, but replacing the leg will take several weeks, at least. Building the leg and adjusting it to fit his body is a complicated and time-consuming process.

“I’ve been fortunate enough that if, for whatever reason, insurance won’t cover it, my prosthetist and the company I work for are willing to help me out and make sure that I’m taken care of, but really, it’s not their job,” Steiner said. “I’m lucky that my prosthetist is willing to even start the process before he has a [guarantee of payment].”

Steiner graduated from the University of Oregon in 2013 and now works as the director of marketing at LIM Innovations, an innovator in the field of prosthetic sockets.

Steiner posted about his plight on Facebook Tuesday, and word spread quickly. He was soon inundated with requests from members of the media. He even received a call from a producer who works for the Ellen DeGeneres Show, though he’s not sure anything will come of it.

Friends and strangers have also rallied around him, setting up at least three different fundraising campaigns on Indiegogo, GoFundMe, and Tilt.

“It kind of blows me away. It’s pretty inspiring to see this many people rallying behind me, but ultimately, I hope that insurance covers my leg and then whatever is raised can go to somebody else who needs a new running blade or something along those lines,” Steiner said. “I didn’t think that this would go beyond a simple little Facebook post.”

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