ST. LOUIS — It’s one thing to be a roofing contractor and have an unused tool stolen from a truck or job site. It’s another to have something stolen you’re in the midst of using.

CBS-affiliate KMOV shared the story of some hard-luck roofing contractors out of St. Louis. On Monday, Jorge Perez and a coworker with Constructors 911 were finishing a week-long complete reroofing job on the roof of a Sherman Williams store. Around 2 p.m. they noticed a surprising sound — the clattering of their ladder.

"I heard the noise and the ladder shaking and I told him, ‘hey what's going on, where's the ladder,’” Perez told KMOV.

The ladder the two workers had used to gain access to the roof was gone. They watched in shock as a white Chevrolet Silverado drove away with their company’s 32-foot ladder sticking out the back. The ladder is valued at $400.

"What goes through that kind of person's mind to be able to take a ladder when it's clearly in use?” said Constructors 911 worker A.J. Crutchfield.

They called the police and reported the crime. They also managed to snap a photo of the truck, which one of their coworkers posted on Facebook. As of Tuesday morning, the photo had gone viral.

Perez and his coworker managed to get down from the roof by jumping from a lower spot on the back of the building. They had a second ladder that they used to finish the job.

Unfortunately, thefts from job sites are not uncommon, and it seems thieves have no problem taking whatever isn’t nailed down. In 2017, a Habitat for Humanity job site in New Jersey had multiple tools stolen. Thankfully, Allied Building Products came to the rescue and donated more than $3,500 in tools and building supplies.