Mike “Bones” Hartzell, the Vietnam vet that called Rice Street in St. Paul’s North End home, left behind a wheelbarrow when he died last December. Kevin Barrett, owner of Dar’s Double Scoop Ice Cream and Pizza, planned to turn the wheelbarrow into a memorial to the homeless man who was loved by the locals.

But on Thursday or Friday, he noticed it was missing.

“I’m hoping it’s kids and they just put it in an alley or something,” Barrett said. “It’s sad. It’s one of the last physical things we have of Mike.”

Barrett had plans to put the red wheelbarrow on his patio, fill it with plants and add a plaque with pictures of Hartzell. The pictures arrived Saturday. Barrett had contacted Your Enchanted Florist, a flower shop on Dale Street, about doing the arrangement. The owner had been waiting for the chilly, rainy weather to subside before starting work.

“I called the florist hoping she picked it up to do the work at the shop,” he said. But she hadn’t. He drove around, hoping to find it abandoned on a nearby street. No luck. So he took to Facebook.

Dozens responded to a Facebook post by Gidget Bailey, owner of Tin Cup’s bar on Rice Street. Several were angry and others vowed to find it.

“Obviously they don’t know Bones and that he has a hundreds of friends that will be out looking for the wheel Barrel and who snatched it,” posted one neighbor.

Bailey offered to sweeten the deal.

“There is a reward for the wheelbarrows return,” she posted. “Our small businesses are very upset right now that someone would steal this from our community!”

Barrett said he has not involved the police saying they would have nothing to go on.

“I was blessed to get to know him,” he said of Hartzell. “He spent his last few days with me. It’s sad. Hopefully we’ll find it.”