An Omaha teen's new prosthetic legs are missing and if they're not found it could cost taxpayers $30,000.

Ferny Martinez hasn't been left without legs to stand on. He's now using spares. "These are like old fashioned."

Taxpayers, through Medicaid, recently purchased two modern prosthetic legs made just to fit the 17-year-old.

"It's extremely rare for someone to walk around with two of these above the knee," says prosthetist Tad Meyer. "It’s difficult to do. It’s very taxing on the individual."

The hydraulics on the demo prosthesis show better movement for the teenager who lost his legs to a childhood disease. "I’ll be able to walk normal like you guys do," says Martinez.

While still breaking the new prosthetic legs in, he would alternate with the old ones. His mother says in a dispute with a landlord she found the locks changed and the new artificial legs missing from their north Omaha duplex.

"We were moving our stuff out, but still staying there and came back the next day and they were gone," says mom Veronica Jacob.

With two prosthetic legs missing, taxpayers are out $30,000. That's what it would cost to replace the two specially made for one person who receives state assistance. "We would have to look into that, I don't know what Medicaid would do on that for another set of legs," says Jan Burton of Burton Prosthetics.

Martinez says taxpayers won't have to pay again if whoever walked away with his artificial legs tells the prosthetic makers where to find them. "They were hydraulic and I’ll be able to walk better."

Police say the missing artificial legs would be considered a civil dispute between the tenant and landlord. The owner of the duplex lives in Maryland and like the tenant, efforts to contact the landlord have been unsuccessful.

Anyone who knows where to find the missing artificial legs is asked to call Burton Prosthetics at 384-1334.