ST. PETERSBURG — Lynda Adkins knows what kindness looks like: It's deep blue with three wheels and a bucket seat.

After her tricycle was stolen from her driveway last week, Adkins, 67, lost hope of ever having the freedom to ride around her neighborhood.

Chronic illness has left her unable to go walk much farther than the end of her driveway, but the tricycle afforded her a kind of independence.

She thought that independence was gone forever. Then a stranger pulled up to her home in the 2800 block of 25th Avenue N late Thursday.

"I'm whole again!" she said.

Derek Byrne, 28, a lawyer at Hightower, Stratton and Wilhelm, gave Adkins a new tricycle after reading about her misfortune in the Tampa Bay Times.

"You read all these bad things in the news all the time, and there's never anything you can do about it," he said. "This had an easy solution. I thought, 'I can fix that.' "

Byrne, who bought the tricycle Thursday, was among more than two dozen people who reached out to the disabled woman, offering new tricycles, used tricycles, money, free taxi rides and, in one case, vigilante justice.

"When you feel that someone did wrong, good people want to make it right," Adkins said. "It's amazing how many good people there are in this world."

Friday afternoon, she took her new trike out for a spin around the neighborhood for the first time.

The tricycle, which has a bucket seat, is more comfortable than her old one, Adkins said.

When she got back, her husband, Lemuel Adkins, 77, secured the tricycle with a chain and lock.

She's not letting anyone take her independence again.

"I'm riding with a big smile on my face," she said. "I'm so happy, I have my joy back again."

Marissa Lang can be reached at mlang@tampabay.com or (727) 893-8804.