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(Image: SUNSHINE COAST DAILY/GETTY)

Because the three pals who discovered this decoy dino found it had a note attached asking for it to be returned to its owner.

And the note itself was offering few clues as to who that was, referring only to a tourist attraction, the Big Pineapple.

Yet now the mystery has been solved and it seems the weathered velociraptor will get to have its homecoming after all.

(Image: SUNSHINE COAST DAILY)

The replica dino was found up Mount Coolum near Sunshine Coast, Australia, by Julie Warhurst and her pals Julia and Madison.

The note read: “Return me to big pineapple to my owner. I escaped from Kenilworth and want to go home. I have been through some sh**.

"Dog fights, cage fights, chicken fights, horse races, dog races and emus races, all across NT, Roma, Darwin, Cairns, Port Headland (sic)."

Yet when the pals contacted the nearby Big Pineapple tourist attraction about a missing dinosaur, staff had no idea what they were talking about.

So they took the dinosaur to the Coolum Police Station and pretty soon the story was picked up by local paper the Sunshine Coast Daily.

It then caught the eye of Mitch Brookes, who co-organised the Big Pineapple music festival in 2014 and recognised the raptor.

Mr Brookes, who could not help laughing, knew the dinosaur had been used as a prop to decorate a safari-themed stage.

"We had a whole bunch of props including the dinosaur to give it that safari feel," he told news.com.au.

(Image: SUNSHINE COAST DAILY)

"When we came back in the morning to pick up the props, we noticed one of the two dinosaurs was missing."

The dinosaur had been rented and a search party was formed to find it, with appeals put out through local media.

A missing persons report was even filed with police, said Mitch, but the replica raptor never resurfaced – until now.

Now the owners have decided to let festival organisers keep the five-foot tall (and slightly beaten up) raptor.

Mitch said: "Whoever went to the effort of putting it up there and leaving this hilarious note, well played."

So where has the dino been for the past two years? Well nobody's sure, but here's one suggestion.

In April, a stunned bus passenger in Brisbane, Australia, spotted what looked like a raptor.

The large-scale replica, which was kept on someone's balcony, had been freaking out locals.