Here’s something to rekindle what’s left of your faith in humanity: Someone returned the Di Pasquale’s sign to Gough Street.

“You restored part of our family history!” Domenico Di Pasquale wrote in a social media post Friday morning.

The day before, he showed up to the building to find the mustard-yellow plaque the size of a boogie board missing, ripped from the brick wall.

The hand-painted sign went up in 1988, the year the cherished Italian market and eatery relocated from Claremont Street, and stayed up even as the owners moved the business yet again in 2021 to 3700 Toone St. in Brewers Hill. The Gough Street building is now home to Forno, a speakeasy offering pizza, cocktails and small bites, which Di Pasquale runs with a friend.

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After conferring with neighbors, Di Pasquale located security camera footage of the incident that he says took place just before 5 a.m. Thursday. Whoever took it “walked right up here, ripped it down, and walked right back down toward Eaton Street.” He filed a police report as he struggled to think of who would do such a thing, and why.

“My parents and I, my whole family, we work so hard,” he said Thursday. “It’s a part of my family history. You can’t get that back.”

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But when Di Pasquale walked back into the building Friday morning, an employee who arrived around 6:30 a.m. said he spotted the sign in the parking lot, leaning against a wall.

“I can’t believe that happened,” said Di Pasquale, who is “excited and just very grateful” that it came back so quickly. All that’s left is to nail the thing back on the wall. A slightly different concern remains, though.

“I’m hoping no one thinks I did it.”

This post has been updated.