Ben Garratt is still in shock days after his tiny home was stolen and his property was wiped clean by thieves using a Uhaul truck to cart everything away.
The theft, which occured on Christmas Day, was of a 17-by-8 foot tiny home, a riding lawn mower, a fireplace and just about anything else that could be stolen from a Fraser Canyon property between Spuzzum and Boston Bar. After a public appeal for information and an ongoing police investigation, the tiny home was last spotted heading up Highway 12 past Lillooet.
“When I turned up there with the kids and just noticed that the bolt had been cut on the front gate…and as soon as I came down the driveway I noticed that the tiny house was gone,” he said. “It’s not a small thing to move a tiny house.”
Garratt builds tiny homes for a living, specifically tiny homes with non-toxic, repurposed and salvaged materials with his company Tiny Healthy Homes. The tiny home which was stolen would be worth around $55,000, it’s the second home he built and it’s been part of his family for over five years or what “feels like forever.” It had just been set up with power, water and internet, and inside were all of the things you would need to spend time here including a couch, snowshoes, garden tools and a fully stocked fridge.
The other homes on the property – a house, a cabin and a shed – were virtually cleaned out with the thieves making away with among other things a propane fireplace, a variety of tools including a riding lawn mower and a chainsaw, an inflatable raft, bedding and even food.
The timing couldn’t be worse, as Garratt was in the process of getting the house on the property insured. The tiny home wasn’t insured yet either.
Garratt and a group had purchased the land in the Fraser Canyon this summer, with plans to live there on and off and eventually move there as a small community. After this theft he said he’s been questioning whether this is the community where he and his friends would like to do this.
What’s for certain is the family won’t be back until the spring as it doesn’t feel too safe there any longer. “We were planning on spending the holiday season there but the house is empty. So I don’t think we’ll be back there until spring to reasess where we’re at. It doesn’t feel safe there.”
The community’s response after Garratt’s sister posted about it on a Boston Bar area Facebook group, has been heartening. “After getting sort of beaten down by that and feeling like the area is dangerous or that the community doesn’t care, it’s clear that the community does care and the majority of people there are really nice people,” Garrett said of the supportive messages and tips he and his family have received so far.
And his sister’s appeals actually helped solve another theft of two tiny homes from Surrey on Dec. 28 Garratt said, when someone saw her post and said they’d noticed another tiny home being pulled into a driveway the morning after the Surrey theft.
Anyone with information that could help Garratt track down the tiny home is asked to call Boston Bar RCMP at 604-867-9333 and to quote the file number 20-54113.
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