A woman spent two years building a ‘tiny house’ from scratch only for thieves to steal it as she finished building it.

Meghan Panu poured $20,000 into the miniature home and was horrified to discover the cedar wood building had been wheeled away from the parking lot in St Louis, Missouri, where she kept it on December 15.

She built the stained cedar home from scratch by sketching the floor plan, insulating it with sheep’s wool, and topping it with a tin roof ahead of a planned spring 2019 move-in date.

Panu was planning to move into the home in spring to take part in the tiny house movement whose small, cheap, often self-built homes were touted as a possible solution to the housing crisis, The Washington Post reported.

She said she got the idea for the home from a Netflix documentary.

‘Being able to move into my tiny house and reduce my consumption as much as possible is very important to me,’ she told The Webster Journal last year.

Panu said the used recycled materials and completed the majority of the construction herself, occasionally enlisting volunteers when possible.

She was invited to park near a warehouse in St. Louis by the warehouse’s owner, who called Panu to tell her the home was missing.

‘He asked if I had moved the tiny house overnight and when I said no, he had the unfortunate new that they hadn’t, and it was likely taken,’ she said.

She eventually turned to social media to help her find her missing home.

‘I NEED YOUR HELP,’ she wrote on Instagram.

‘St. Louis Tiny Living…the tiny house was stolen. I’m at a loss. Please, if you see it around the city call and report it.

Panu’s followers were on the case and many expressed their sympathy.

The 12-foot-tall home that was stolen sometime Saturday, Dec. 15, 2018 from a warehouse parking lot (Photo: AP)
‘I’m so sorry dude!’ wrote one follower who promised to ‘keep my eyes peeled.’

Another follower said she was driving from Iowa to Florida and vowed ‘to keep an eye out while we travel.’

The next day the house was reportedly spotted heading West towards Kansas city.

On Monday, local media stations joined the house hunt.

‘There are car thieves, package thieves and air conditioning thieves, but St. Louis larceny reached a new milestone Saturday when burglars drove off with a whole house,’ the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote.

The tale of the missing house has a happy ending though – on Wednesday police found the home in House Springs, Missouri.

An anonymous tip led authorities to the stolen cabin, although no arrests were made and there was no information about potential suspects.

A towing company even said it would return the house for free as ‘an early Christmas present,’ said House Springs Sheriff, Dave Marshak.

Panu said she still plans to move in to the house by the Spring and had a message for those who stole it.

‘I think the take away from all this is, don’t steal, because you could be stealing someone’s dream,’ she said.

Mirror UK