Prosthetic arm worth $150K stolen, damaged, recovered

Chris Ruden has a new theme for his next motivational speech: Regardless of how bad things seem, they always work out.

Ruden’s $150,000 prosthetic arm was stolen from his truck Sunday, but a couple of off-duty Boynton Beach police officers found it less than a day later.

The officers found the arm in some bushes near where it was reported stolen, and investigators are still looking for the thief.

The prosthetic’s pinky finger was broken, but the arm still functioned, Ruden said.

“That’s the best case scenario,” Ruden, 28, said Sunday night as he left the Boynton Police Department with his recovered prosthetic.

Ruden said he did not know of anything else that was stolen from his truck.

As a motivational speaker, Ruden spends his time talking with children who have both physical disabilities and diabetes to help them overcome obstacles in their lives. He was planning three talks and said he dreaded having to explain to his audience that his arm was stolen.

“Limitations are self-imposed’ is my whole message,” Ruden said Sunday evening before the prosthetic was found. “What sucks is someone else trying to impose their own limits on me.”

Ruden was born with only two fingers on his left hand and a shorter left arm. He was also diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 19.

He previously showed up in headlines after breaking world records for powerlifting.

A video of him putting on his new prosthetic for the first time

also made rounds on social media last year.

He was getting ready to create a motivational video at his Coconut Creek home earlier Sunday when he noticed the arm missing from his truck. He immediately called his girlfriend to see if it was at her house in Boynton.

“When she said no, I lost it,” Ruden recalled, noting his disbelief that someone would steal it.

The black carbon fiber arm was created by Touch Bionics and custom-fit for his arm. Since he does not have insurance, he had no way of affording a new one, he said.

“When you have a Lamborghini for an arm, it’s a little expensive,” Ruden said.

BOYNTON BEACH POLICE DEPARTMENT Chris Ruden stands with Boynton Beach Police Sgt. De Los Rios, left, and Crime Scene Investigator Tom McKinlay, who helped recover his missing prosthetic arm Sunday.