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The photo of him accepting a pair of boots from a New York Police Department officer to cover his bare and blistered feet became an Internet sensation.

Those boots, however, seem to have gone missing, according to The New York Times.

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It was a cold night on Nov. 14 and homeless man Jeffrey Hillman, sitting on the sidewalk near Times Square, didn’t have anything on his feet.

Police officer Lawrence DePrimo decided to purchase the man a pair of $100 all-weather boots, a gesture captured in a photograph by tourist Jennifer Foster.

Foster sent the photo to the NYPD, who then put it on their Facebook page, where it quickly went viral. Posted widely on Twitter, Facebook and Reddit, it was hailed as a comforting reminder of generosity and goodness.

But now those shoes appear to be gone.

A New York Times reporter found Hillman on Sunday on the Upper West Side. He was barefoot again and couldn’t say where his new shoes had gone exactly.

“Those shoes are hidden. They are worth a lot of money,” Hillam told the newspaper. “I could lose my life.”

The 54-year-old, who once served in the U.S. military, said he was grateful for DePrimo’s kind gesture but also pointed out the photo of him was circulated around the world without his permission.