An American woman spent two years building a small house – then thieves took her away

Where Meghan Panu's house once stood, only bricks and planks remained.

It was strange because there had been no fire. Or an earthquake. No, the woman's home was moved on a trailer where she was lying in front of a warehouse in St Louis, Missouri, USA, to buy home improvement supplies.

It was not an ordinary house, with foundations anchored in the ground. It was a small house. And he disappeared over the weekend.

The recent graduate of Webster University worked for two years in minimalist accommodation. She had drawn a plan, laid sheep wool insulation and found sources of electricity and water. The house reached a height of 3.7 meters, with green windows, a tin roof and a tinted cedar cladding. The construction cost him about $ 20,000 ($ 29,800).

READ MORE:
* Home security ideas for small homes on wheels
* The construction of a small house has a major setback
* Small house stolen in West Auckland found

Panu had planned to move in next year to participate in the tiny movement of the house. Architectural and social experience has led to an alternative lifestyle and, in some areas, a quick fix to the homelessness problem.

This has led to negative reactions from traditional homeowners who fear that the trend will drive down prices, as well as experts who have warned that tiny mobile homes – typically 100 to 400 square feet – are insufficient shelter for farmers. vulnerable.

For Panu, building a miniature home was a sustainable living experience. "My hope would be to participate in the creation of a small ecological village," she wrote on Facebook in March.

"Being able to move into my tiny house and reduce my consumption to the maximum is very important to me," said Panu. Webster Journal last year. She said that she had had the idea of ​​a documentary on Netflix.

The process began in early 2017 with pencil sketches. In February, she acquired a trailer. Panu has launched a call on Facebook to get a warehouse space, but much of the construction has taken place outside. The house was framed last winter. In March, the roof was in place.

She was proud to use recycled materials and did most of the construction herself, recruiting volunteers where she could find them, including friends and even her father on at least one occasion.

"Blood, sweat and tears," she wrote in February, uploading a photo of her bloody hand. "But mostly blood."

By the time it took shape, the house had shuttled between St Louis and Webster Groves, where Panu University is located. But on Saturday morning, she received a call from the owner of the supply warehouse who had recently invited her to park near her company, Refab.

"He asked me if I had moved the tiny house overnight and when I said no, he had the unfortunate news of not doing it, and that was was probably taken, "Panu told WTHR, a subsidiary of NBC.

She made a call on social media. "I NEED YOUR HELP," she wrote on her Instagram page, "St Louis Tiny Living." Between 22:30 Friday and 11:00 Saturday, she explained that "the little house was stolen".

"I'm lost," she continued. "Please, if you see it around town call and report it."

His supporters came to his defense. "I'm so sorry man!" he wrote, swearing "to keep your eyes open". Another commented, "I'm livid for you." One person simply proclaimed "WHAT".

And then there was the devoted disciple who said that she would search the entire Midwest for unusual contraband. She was driving from Iowa to Florida, she said, and had taken a screenshot of the Panu house "to keep an eye on us during our trip".

"It takes a village"

In the days that followed, Panu gathered all the power of Internet detection, social media advice and passing it on to its subscribers as it was lobbying local businesses for security images.

"Keep looking, you need a village," she told her army of amateur detectives, reporting that the house had been seen Saturday morning heading north from Grand, near Russell. On Sunday, two reports came to place the house on a westbound highway to Kansas City.

The tracks came on the Panu Facebook page. A motorist located about 160 km west of St. Louis said he spotted what appeared to be his home towed by a light gray diesel Dodge 3500 pickup truck. When Panu posted a screen copy of the message On his Facebook page, someone said he'd seen the same truck parked near the house parked near an Iron Skillet restaurant in Kingdom City, Missouri.

On Monday, local media joined the lawsuit. "There are car thieves, packet thieves and thieves of air conditioning," the St Louis Post-Dispatch reported. "But the St Louis larceny took a new step on Saturday, when burglars left with an entire house."

A title from Fox rang out: "A South City woman clueless in front of a tiny stolen house." The announcement seemed to reflect Panu's emotional state when she posted it on Facebook, earning more than 1,000 shares and several new tips. She added that two men were driving a truck with the horse drawn behind. "Maybe traveling in Nebraska," she speculated.

On Tuesday, clues suggest they were heading to California.

But still no conclusive tracks.

"Thank you all for your continued support, but unfortunately I have no new information yet," she wrote on Tuesday. Having only a few things to say about the flight, she posted pictures of the house as she took shape over the summer, recalling what she had formerly .

On Wednesday, detectives found the home 30 km from the Mississippi River in House Springs, Missouri, Jefferson County Sheriff Dave Marshak said on Twitter. An anonymous tip brought them to the stolen residence. According to Post-Dispatchthere was no word on the suspects.

The authorities did not take long to reach Panu, who received other good news. A payday company announced that it would make the house free – "an early Christmas present," Marshak said.

"TINY HOUSE FOUND", wrote Panu on Facebook adding an emoji fixture. She plans to finish the interior before moving in next year.

A CULTURAL PHENOMENON

When Panu moved into her tiny home, she would join a movement that dates back to Henry David Thoreau, who wrote in Walden, published in 1854, his desire "to live deliberately, to present only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what to teach, and no, when I died, I would find out that I had not lived. " The writer and abolitionist built his own home in Walden Pond, Massachusetts.

Nowadays, the tiny internal movement seeks to stand out from the consumer economy, but its expansion in the United States is also born out of necessity. According to EcoWatch, small houses have become an "architectural and cultural phenomenon" after the collapse of the housing market between 2007 and 2009. Now, from San Jose to Philadelphia, communities of tiny homes are becoming a solution possible to the problem of homelessness.

At the same time, minimalist homes have become a trendy lifestyle choice. Some occupy them full time, others place mobile structures adjacent to a more complete residence and rent miniature dwellings on Airbnb.

"Five impressive little houses that you can order now," reads Curbed. HGTV's Tiny House Hunters television series follows buyers "to the extent that they plan to dramatically reduce their workforce."

These are the contradictions that define the movement, said Nancy Unger, historian at the University of Santa Clara. "Tendency, I try to live more simply and it's" all that I have between me and homelessness ", they're all part of it," she said . A title on the ArchDaily blog had this ominous interpretation: "Tiny Houses: Reducing the American Dream".

Unger said the movement was facing difficulties because of lack of support from local homeowners, who fear that an influx of tiny housing will lower prices for traditional housing. There are also risks for the occupants, especially since someone can "take off with the thing you have invested everything in," she said.

Of course, no one is immune from disaster, said the historian. Apparent disaster is not always the last word, as Panu learned in St. Louis.

But it's a precarious way of life.

"I live in a house and it could be burned or many other things could happen," said Unger. "But nobody can steal it."

* Comments are now closed on this article.