Someone Stole This Woman’s Tiny Home—But She Got It Back Just In Time For Christmas
We often hear about thieves snagging packages off the porches of people’s homes at this time of the year, but what if robbers took off with your entire home?
That’s just what happened to a woman in St. Louis. On Dec. 17, Meghan Panu discovered that the tiny home she’d been building for two years had disappeared from the parking lot of a home-refurbishing supply store. As many tiny homes are, Panu’s petit chateau was perched atop a trailer, so it was easy for the thieves to pull away with it.
“It’s just so surreal because you hear about trailers and cars being stolen all the time,” Panu told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “But this is a house, and someone drove off with it.”
A search via social media ensued after Panu posted about her home on the lam:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BrahgDbD1cs/?utm_source=ig_embed
Followers reported they’d seen the tiny home traveling west on Interstate 70, and even south of Kingdom City, Missouri — two hours away from St. Louis.
On the morning of Dec. 19, police followed an anonymous tip and discovered the tiny home southwest of St. Louis, in House Springs, Missouri. Panu posted the sheriff’s tweet that announced they’d found her home, along with the caption, “TINY HOUSE FOUND”:
Then, the sheriff posted that Ives Towing was giving Panu “an early Christmas Present.” The company would tow her tiny home back to St. Louis for free. What a nice gift!
More good news on the TinyHouse Recovered. Ives Towing in Hillsboro is giving the owner an early Christmas Present – There will be no charge for the towing/Recovery @ksdknews @KMOV @FOX2now @KPLR11 @ktrs_news @stltoday @ChristineDByers pic.twitter.com/aCqP0QgCWS
— Sheriff Dave Marshak (@SheriffMarshak) December 19, 2018
Panu recently graduated from college and had been planning to move the tiny home into a lot soon and finish the home’s interior so she could move in in the spring. (She has been posting photos of her progress as she goes.) It looks like she’ll be back on schedule soon — she posted this photo of the towing company pulling her home right back to where it belongs:
Thanks to the sheriff’s office, a helpful tipster and the kind folks at the towing company, it looks like everything has come together for Panu. We’re glad this story has a happy ending!