How a Man's Log Cabin Went Missing

ByMEGHAN KENEALLY ABCNews logo
Friday, February 27, 2015

A man returned to his property in Oregon earlier this week only to find that his log cabin was gone.

It wasn't wrecked from bad weather or bulldozed to the ground. The entire building was just not there.

Police eventually found the cabin 3,750 feet away from its original location and now believe they have figured out who took it.

The case appears to involve a complicated ownership agreement regarding the property, a fire at the main house on the land that displaced the people who had lived there, and changing romantic relationships, according to investigators from the Klamath Falls Sheriff's Department.

"Quite frankly, it's one of the most unusual moments I've ever seen," Sheriff Frank Skrah said at a news conference Thursday.

The approximately 1,200-square-foot cabin was a secondary building on a larger property that was jointly-owned by three individuals -- a man, his ex-wife and the ex-wife's former flame.

The former flame built the cabin and was the only person listed on the home loan, sheriff's officials said. However, the other man allegedly then sold the cabin to a neighbor without the owner's permission, the officials added.

The former flame returned to the property on Tuesday for the first time in months to find the log cabin missing and then reported it to police.

Police were able to determine that the neighbor who paid $3,000 for the cabin had no idea it was stolen.

The home was first listed as $10,000, but the buyer was able to haggle down the price, officials said.

"To quote him, 'It was a steal of a deal,'" a sheriff's department official said at a news conference on Thursday.

The investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed.

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