SPOKANE, Wash. — Spokane Police say they have found a tiny home that was stolen from a storage facility in North Spokane on Monday.
Detectives with the Stolen Property Enforcement and Recovery Unit (SPEAR) responded and let the homeowner know of the recovery.
KREM 2 spoke with Karin Potter, the owner of the tiny home after it was found. Potter said the home was covered in plywood which put holes in the siding and the roof. She added that it appeared as if whoever took the home was living inside of it.
All that was previously left of the home was the front porch after a thief took off with the home earlier this week. Owner Karin Potter told KREM 2 on Wednesday, “It didn't feel real. It still doesn't feel real."
She says the storage facility called her Monday morning to tell her a thief had driven away with her dream home in tow. It wasn't until she saw the surveillance video shared by SPD that it started to sink in.
"Doesn't feel like I've lost an object I can just go replace," she said. "It's felt like losing a loved one, like I've lost a relationship."
A relationship she says started twelve years ago, when she bought the trailer for the dream project. Five years later, she'd moved in.
She documented her four years in the tiny house on an Instagram page dedicated to the tiny home on Bluebird Lane.
"Something I did not expect about living tiny is how much my mental health improved," she said.
Her dream took a detour during the pandemic, so she parked the house in storage in 2021, always planning to return to tiny living someday. The plan hit another hitch when someone hitched up to her trailer inside the locked gates.
"My understanding is they actually took the iron fence apart," she said. "So they were very prepared."
SPD has security footage from the facility that shows an unknown person wearing a hooded sweatshirt gain drive away with the home on the back of a car similar to a GMC 1500 truck. Police say the suspect damaged the gate to make it open before driving out of the parking lot.
She also had a lock on the trailer hitch but says the thief also managed to remove it. She says her story has spurred fear in the tiny home community, something she doesn't want to see come out of this. Others have discussed ways to protect their own pint-sized properties, like putting on trackers.
The thief left her out of house and home, but not without support. Her post to a stolen cars Facebook page has been shared more than 100 times.
"I think people connect with the idea of how violating it is that someone would take your home," Potter said. "Again, it's not a thing, it's not an object. It's a piece of who you are."
The tiny home community has also shared her story as far as Massachusetts. There's hope her home away comes home to stay.
"Spreading the word and being on the lookout for the vehicle. And of course my home," she said. "I think it'll be pretty clear that's my house."
SPD says if the suspect is found, there's probable cause to arrest them for 2nd Degree Burglary, 1st Degree Theft and 3rd Degree Malicious Mischief.
If you have any information about this incident or the location of the stolen home, SPD asks that you contact Crime Check at 509-456-2233.