Bloody hell! J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter prequel story was stolen, The Telegraph reports.
The famed British author, 51, jotted down the story to help raise money for English Pen. It was sold at a charity auction for around $38,000 in 2008.
According to England’s West Midlands Police, her 800-word story, which was written on an A5 postcard, was taken during a home robbery in central England sometime between April 13 and April 24.
“The handwritten postcard by @jk_rowling was purchased to raise money for charity. #Harrypotter fans if you have any info please call 101,” the official Twitter account for the police department tweeted on Friday, May 12.
Rowling also asked for the parchment paper to be returned. “PLEASE DON’T BUY THIS IF YOU’RE OFFERED IT,” she tweeted. “Originally auctioned for @englishpen, the owner supported writers’ freedoms by bidding for it.”
The owner of the item, a man named Hira, was away on a Bangkok business trip when the incident occurred. “I’m not a huge Harry Potter fan. But I took good care of it. The card never came out of the box,” he told The Telegraph. “It’s shocking for this to happen.”
