Alyson lives in Sydney, Australia. Every day he passes by a homeless man sitting in the same spot and happily chats to passers-by. The 59-year-old man also has a pet rat named Lucy that never leaves his side and munches on snacks as it entertains strangers together with its human owner.

More info: Facebook

Recently, a homeless man named Chris had his beloved pet rat stolen

A couple of days ago, Alyson noticed that Chris was alone and distressed. She decided to check on him and noticed that through his sign language, he was trying to tell passersby that his beloved pet was stolen from him.

According to the man, his pet was probably stolen for outside the footlocker its usually housed after he briefly went to the bathroom. Completely baffled by the news, Alyson was appalled and called the act of stealing from a homeless man ‘lowly’ a sentiment many people shared.

She published a post on Facebook detailing the incident and it went viral within hours receiving more than 16k shares in a few days.

Many commenters showed disgust in lack of humanity compelling one to steal the rat. Others figured that a way to help Chris and started sharing photos of Lucy in the hopes that someone will find her safe and unharmed.

Chris has recorded a statement with the local police and says that Police are checking CCTV’s in the hope of finding the suspect. So far, there is no positive information and the saddened man is worried that he will never get his friend back.

Here’s how people reacted