It was a theft almost too hard to believe.
"It was here last time I was here, and now it's gone," homeowner Moose Hempel said.
A family reported their small vacation cabin near Loon Lake, Washington, missing from its foundation Tuesday. Now authorities say they've located the stolen home.
Local outlets report the Stevens County Sheriff’s Department received a tip about the stolen cabin Wednesday and later found it Thursday morning 10 miles from its original location.
The Hempel family — the finders and, hopefully, keepers in this story — said stealing a 10-by-20-foot home is surprising enough but added they can't quite figure out how the thieves even knew it was there.
"The cabin wasn't visible from the road. The thieves cut the padlock from their gate and hauled the cabin out on a trailer on a winding dirt road, likely at night," KXLY's Grace Ditzler reported.
The Stevens County sheriff said this sort of hefty haul isn't unusual. An Oregon home was stolen off its foundation back in February — except that one was six times larger.
"This isn't a mobile home. This isn't a motor home. This is a home," Klamath County Sheriff Frank Skrah said.
The Spokesman-Review reports Washington law enforcement officials have suspects in the case of the stolen cabin but haven't made any arrests.
