PORT ANGELES — A Vancouver, Wash., family will recover the camping trailer it nearly lost after someone spray-painted “free”‘ on it as it sat along state Highway 112.

The trailer’s owner said Sunday he’d left it at a relative’s home west of Port Angeles in August.

Later, the relative told him the trailer would be moved to a turnout on Highway 112 near Freshwater Bay Road.

Then someone painted “free” on it, and a third party took the sign at its word — and took the trailer — on Sept. 2.

The Vancouver family advertised in Peninsula Daily News and asked anyone who knew the trailer’s whereabouts to call the family or the Clallam County sheriff.

A family who lives on Freshwater Bay Road called the sheriff and said they had the trailer.

The Vancouver man said he would retrieve the trailer soon.

As for the people who took the trailer, he said, “Thank goodness the people had a conscience and did the right thing.”

The trailer’s owner declined to give his name when called by a PDN reporter.

“Things are bad enough as they are,” he said.