WOONSOCKET, R.I. � Stuart Gast walked his dog every day behind Kennedy Manor, but on Monday while he walked Oreo he noticed a man taking his dog�s red-and-black carrier and ran after him. Gast, a 33-year-old...

WOONSOCKET, R.I. � Stuart Gast walked his dog every day behind Kennedy Manor, but on Monday while he walked Oreo he noticed a man taking his dog�s red-and-black carrier and ran after him.

Gast, a 33-year-old who had some learning and speech disabilities, chased the man about 200 yards to Cumberland Street, when he noticed the Chihuahua had hurt his tiny paws when Gast pulled him behind him as he ran.

Gast became distraught, his mother, Rachel Currier, said. He paced around the house all day, going to the dog and asking him if he was OK. That night Gast, who hadn�t had an epileptic seizure in eight years, had one and was taken to Landmark Medical Center, Currier said. Gast died that evening. His mother said medical staff revived him four times and on the fifth try they could not.

On Thursday morning, Currier sought refuge at her friend Alice Groleau�s apartment across the hall, on the ninth floor of Kennedy Manor where she lives. Friends stopped by to give their condolences.

Gast was her only son and he was a handful, she said. �He was so active. He was my social butterfly,� she said. Gast loved food. He loved running in the relay race in the Special Olympics. He was a captain of a USBC bowling team. He loved watching football with his friends.

They were a good match, Currier said. Gast, who weighed nearly 250 pounds, liked to eat, and she liked to cook. His favorite two dishes were pasta-and-chicken and peanut butter-and-Fluff sandwiches. He prepared the sandwiches every day to take with him to ProAbility, where he was learning life skills so he could get his own apartment at Kennedy Manor. Currier wanted to be nearby.

Sgt. Matthew Ryan of the Woonsocket police said Rachel Currier notified the police around 10:06 a.m. Monday of the theft of the red dog carrier with a black mesh screen. An officer was dispatched but there were no witnesses and no description of the person who did it.

The medical examiner did not give a cause of death because more investigation is needed.

Currier said the theft occurred in the morning and Gast, who was unable to speak well, came home and made motions and used some words to let her know the carrier had been stolen. He was restless and walked around the house. She took him across the street to get tape and gauze for the dog�s foot. At 4 p.m. she heard a little bit of a banging sound in Gast�s room, and then a big bang. She entered the room to find him on the floor having a seizure.

Currier said the theft and injury of his dog made her son ill. He died of a broken heart, she said.

Lisa Jean, a family friend, said that Currier�s husband, Pete Currier, was recently in a bad car accident and the couple did not have life insurance for Gast. Jean set up an account for them to help defray the cost of the funeral at Dean Bank at 8 Main St., Blackstone, MA, 01504. Those who want to help can make the check out to Benefit of Stuart Gast or make the check out to Dean Bank and write Stuart Gast in the memo, she said.

�How does a person go walk a dog and not come home that night?� Jean asked.

On Thursday morning, Currier said she finished doing the �hardest thing I ever had to do.�

She went into her son�s bedroom to get the clothes she would bury him in. She picked out his Special Olympics uniform.