BLOOMINGTON - Riding his all-terrain vehicle on the family farm in rural Bloomington was something Brian Gillan, who is autistic, could do as well as other kids.

Somebody robbed him of that pleasure Saturday night when Brian's red Polaris Sportsman 400 was taken from a shed on his family's property, about a mile north of the family's rural Bloomington home off Ill. Route 9.

"I want to believe in the best in people," said Brian's mother, Debra Gillan. She wants the ATV back, no questions asked.

The $5,500 vehicle was Brian's equivalent of a car. "He'll never drive a car," said Gillan, a part-time court reporter in McLean County. Her husband, Vern Gillan, works at Caterpillar.

The ATV is Brian's pride and joy. The Normal Community West High School student has a special connection to the ATV because he saved his money to help pay for it, she said.

"We wanted him to learn responsibility and the value of money," she said. "He rides it at least once a week and loves it. He'd wave at us as he drove by."

Her son now asks over and over where his ATV is. "I told him someone took it," she said.

Howard Springer, a detective at the McLean County Sheriff's Department, said the theft has been referred to the detective division and is under investigation.

How to help

If you have information about the missing ATV, call:

- Debra Gillan, (309) 829-1004

- McLean County Sheriff's Department, (309) 888-5051