Story highlights HitchBOT creators say it's 'quite a setback,' but they're still upbeat

The hitchhiking robot hitchBOT gets vandalized in Philadelphia

The goal was for the robot to make it all the way across the United States

(CNN) This is why we can't have nice hitchhiking robots.

HitchBOT, the cheerful hitchhiking robot that had made cross-country trips across Canada, the Netherlands and Germany, had intended to travel across the United States as well. Instead, it survived all of 300 miles on the mean streets of the U.S.A.

Two weeks after beginning its U.S. trip in Boston, the robot was vandalized in Philadelphia, the team overseeing the robot said in a statement.

"HitchBOT's trip came to an end last night in Philadelphia after having spent a little over two weeks hitchhiking and visiting sites in Boston, Salem, Gloucester, Marblehead, and New York City," the hitchBOT "family" said on its website . "Unfortunately, hitchBOT was vandalized overnight in Philadelphia; sometimes bad things happen to good robots."

My trip must come to an end for now, but my love for humans will never fade. Thanks friends: http://t.co/DabYmi6OxH pic.twitter.com/sJPVSxeawg — hitchBOT (@hitchBOT) August 1, 2015

Frauke Zeller, one of hitchBOT's creators, said the robot's "family" was disappointed in the incident. HitchBOT -- which consisted of bits of technology (including a GPS and a movable arm) and odds and ends such as Wellington boots and gardening gloves -- was put together by researchers from Ontario's McMaster and Ryerson universities.