A tiny house prototype worth $20,000 has been spotted in Queensland less than 24 hours after it was stolen from a Canberra business over the weekend.
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The house's owner, Julie Bray, said the house and its trailer were stolen from her Mitchell business on Sunday night.
Someone in the area called police when they heard an angle grinder being used on the trailer's wheel clamp, Ms Bray said.
Police arrived "within minutes", but the house was gone.
While investigations into the theft of the conspicuous item centred on the local area, Ms Bray soon turned to social media.
She heard reports the tiny house may have been spotted more than 1000 km away in Kingaroy in Southern Queensland.
"I'm a business owner turned private detective," she said. "At first I didn't believe it, but then someone else contacted me.
"It's absolutely remarkable; it's been seen in under 21 hours."
Ms Bray is confident the tiny house spotted up north is hers based on the detailed reports given to her by a man in Queensland.
"It has a faded patch on the timber on one side, [the man] said, I realised that's exactly where our sign would have been, but, of course, it would have been pulled off," she said.
"I've never towed it at speed before but it's showed it's up to it, I won't need an engineering certificate for it now!"
The model house was due to be shown at the Canberra Home and Leisure Show in October. Once plumbing and the internal fit-out was complete, it was expected to be worth $30,000.
Ms Bray hopes to manufacture tiny homes through her existing company to help tackle Australia's housing crisis, with the launch of the new business originally slated for the end of the year.
With no time to build another one before the show, Ms Bray is banking on the home being recovered. But the case is rapidly growing cold - the house and its trailer have since been moved from where they were spotted in Kingaroy.
"I don't know where it is exactly now but we're narrowing in," Ms Bray said.
In the weeks before the theft, she said a few smaller items had been stolen from her business compound.
"They obviously had a plan," Ms Bray said. "To get there that fast, they would have had to head straight out onto the Barton Highway."
ACT policing confirmed it was investigating the theft.
"The complainant in the matter has reported the matter to Queensland Police," they said.
"No other reports of thefts of 'tiny houses' have been reported."
