“It upset me,” Donald Oakes, a Vietnam veteran, told KCWY in Casper, Wyoming recently.

“I found the flagpole on the ground and the flag was missing. So I immediately made plans to put up a new one.”

The city, where just under 59,000 Americans reside, in the state that ranks second-to-last in population density has however harbored a few citizens that pestered Oakes in this way before — according to him.

One of which has been the municipality itself.

“Oh I’ve had problems in the past. It was originally located about 10 feet to the north of where it is now on a fence post, but the highway department came through and rebuilt the intersection … and I had to relocate the flagpole.”

“I mean, being a veteran, you know, I’m a very patriotic person. And it’s kind of like a piece gets torn out of you when somebody takes that part of you.”

Local authorities are currently looking into the theft.