A Sturgeon County man is making a public plea for the return of a trailer, filled with irreplaceable mementos of his wife, who recently died of cancer.

Daniel Ebert spent the Thanksgiving weekend out of town, and he returned home to find his family’s trailer had been taken.

“They left the pad, you can see all the broken pieces from the hitch lock,” Ebert said Tuesday.

Ebert said the trailer was full of mementos and memories for him and his two young sons – months after his wife and their mother, Melissa, died from a fast-moving cancer.

“There’s some clothes of hers there, two laptops, the boys’ toys,” Ebert said.

“A lot of family photos, from years ago, all our family and that’s the main thing that I want back.”

He said the most recent photos were taken just after Melissa’s diagnosis.

Before her death, Ebert said his wife had asked him to have a photo of their family blown up and mounted on the wall of the trailer.

The trailer at one time belonged to her grandparents, and had been used for a number of family trips over the years.

“[Melissa] passed away June 16, and it’s just one thing after the other, there’s not much more our little family can take,” Ebert said.

The grieving father is sharing his story in hopes someone will either report sightings of the trailer to police, or the thieves will see it and at least return the items with sentimental value back to the family.

“It’d be nice to have all that back, all in one piece preferably.”

With files from Nicole Weisberg