Actions

Sign stolen from family of Navy SEAL who battled ALS returned after NewsChannel 3 Takes Action

Posted at 12:47 PM, May 13, 2015

and last updated 2015-05-13 20:37:50-04

Virginia Beach, Va. (WTKR) - Frog Hollow Farm, a little slice of heaven for a Virginia Beach Navy SEAL who fought ALS, is once again complete.

For years NewsChannel 3 chronicled Mike Oyer's brave fight against ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, as it slowly robbed him of his ability to walk, talk and breathe.

Mike lost his fight in August 2012, but his legacy has lived on in Hampton Roads, with his family Taking Action to bring awareness to the disease.

Oyer's Virginia Beach farm in Pungo was named Frog Hollow in homage to his service as a Navy SEAL.

The farm is where Mike loved to be and where his family still lives today.

They were devastated and angry when someone stole the sign from the farm on April 1st.

NewsChannel 3 Took Action, getting the word out about the stolen piece of Mike's memory.

It worked - six weeks after the sign went missing, it's been returned.

"It was found near Oceana. So it definitely had a trip all the way out there. A woman was doing gardening 3 weeks ago and saw a sign in a vacant lot behind her house and went and grabbed it and put it in her yard," daughter Emily Oyer told NewsChannel 3's Todd Corillo on Wednesday.

The woman didn't recognize the significance of the sign until a chance encounter with a man who knew Mike Oyer on Sunday.

"She had a couple of friends over and someone who knew about my Dad saw it and said 'Where did you get this. How have you not ever heard about it on NewsChannel 3.' She had no idea and so they went on Facebook and somehow found my older brother’s phone number and got ahold of him," Oyer explained.

Now the sign is once again hanging proudly by the roadside, this time with a padlock to ensure it doesn't get stolen again.

"It's just finally back where it belongs and it just feels whole again because it was definitely weird without it. It didn’t feel right."

"We want to thank you know NewsChannel 3 for this – we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them. It is what they say – Taking Action Getting Results because I mean that’s the main prize right there. We got it back and that’s all that matters," Oyer commented.