http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2003/08/01/state0429EDT0032.DTL
Thieves did more than just break into B.J. Miller's tiny 10-by-20-foot rural home and make off with a few precious items -- they made off with the whole house.
Authorities said it probably took at least a day for someone to deconstruct Miller's small prefabricated home near Placerville and take it away, well pump and generator included.
The thieves even took a 2,600-gallon water tank. All that remains now is a tool shed and the pads upon which the house once stood.
"They didn't just steal something. They stole his life," neighbor Kent Walton told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Miller currently lives in Berkeley. The retired engineer was setting up the home over the past few months as a small vacation getaway place for his family.
"The whole thing has been shocking and heartbreaking," Miller said, putting the total loss at about $20,000.
He's put up a few posters with photos of the home, hoping someone will tip him off if the thieves try to sell the goods. But neighbors are still bemused at how it all happened.
"It gets me that they got by me," said Laurel Fulton, a retired nurse and neighbor in the Cosumnes Acres area. "I should have noticed a truck going by with a big house in the back."