Chris Davis and Dori Olmos

KSDK-TV, St. Louis

HOUSE SPRINGS, Mo. — A tiny house that was reported missing from south St. Louis was found Wednesday morning, officials confirmed.

The Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak reported the tiny house was found — of all places — in House Springs.

But there's even more good news for owner Meghan Panu. Ives Towing in Hillsboro is towing the house back to her for free. Sheriff Marshak called it an early Christmas present.

"To wake up to all of these notifications on my phone, I've been saying it from the beginning it's so surreal," Panu said Wednesday.

Panu’s tiny house was sitting on Michigan Avenue in the Benton Park West neighborhood when it was stolen over the weekend. She had been gradually building the home piece by piece.

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

Over the last two years, with the help of friends, she's been building her dream home.

The owner of a local business agreed to let her park it on the street. She was preparing to move it to a lot she had picked out when she got a call Saturday morning.

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

Panu said it was difficult to get her home insured because most insurance companies struggle to classify what it should fall under.

She also said she had a trailer lock on it, but the crooks must have bypassed it somehow.