The Francis J was found ashore Michigan City, Ind. this week after being reported stolen Sunday from Monroe Harbor. View Full Caption Reddit/aoscott

DOWNTOWN — This little boat was found ashore in Indiana after possibly being taken for a joyride out of Monroe Harbor, the boat's owners say.

The Francis J, a handmade wooden trawler, was reported stolen Sunday from the harbor at 400 E. Monroe St., police records show.

By Wednesday night the Coast Guard told the boat's owners that the Francis J had washed ashore in Michigan City, Ind. A passerby snapped a photo of the beached boat and posted it to Reddit Thursday night.

The boat's owners think the boat was likely taken for a joyride.

"I had no idea people did boat joyrides," Hal Conick, the son of one of the boat's owners, said. "[This is some] Ferris Bueller s---."

The owners, two suburban lawyers, discovered the boat was missing Sunday when they went to the harbor. They filed a report with Chicago police, who told DNAinfo earlier this week they had no surveillance or other information on any suspects.

Petty Officer James Bradberry, who's stationed in Michigan City, said authorities were alerted to an unmanned boat floating 200 yards off the beach at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. The Coast Guard searched near the boat to make sure no one was in the water, and by 7:50 p.m. the boat had drifted ashore, where the Coast Guard was able to match the boat to its owners.

A private company then loaded the boat to a truck and drove it back to Chicago, Bradberry said. He declined to say whether the boat was damaged or if there was evidence it was stolen.

Bradberry said this marked the first time he had seen an unmanned boat floating near the beaches of Michigan City.

The boat's discovery was good news for its owners, who were worried their one-of-a-kind vessel was lost forever. The Francis J was handmade in Madison, Wis., by a carpenter who intended to use it on Wisconsin rivers before selling it. The boat resembles a trawler commonly found on the East Coast but not so much in Lake Michigan.

The boat is valued between $15,000 and $20,000, much less than many other boats docked Downtown, but the Francis J was worth much more to its owners sentimentally.

"It takes special effort, like piracy on the high seas, to use a craft to take a craft," one owner, Harold Conick of suburban Wheaton, said. "I would've preferred he stole my car, or 15, 20 grand of my money. I could deal with that more readily."