More than 200 items stolen by a literal cat burglar in Hamilton need to be returned to their owners.
Nico the Great has built a reputation for nicking knickers – which is not so great for the people whose knickers he is nicking.
The feline has apparently sneaking onto people’s properties day and night, collecting their smalls and other bits and bobs.
Nico trumpets his return to his Hamilton home, meowing repeatedly when its been a successful hunting party and displaying the ill-gotten gains for his whānau.
His thieving has reached epic levels – he has collected about 200 items since April, all of which need to be returned to their rightful owners.
Nico the Great’s owner Kateshe Clark told RNZ’s Checkpoint it was an entertaining situation, “but also quite concerning and somewhat embarrassing as well”.
Clark said the majority of stolen items tended to be socks, but also women’s underwear, men’s trunks, dishcloths, tea-towels, sponges and most recently a little puppet.
She said when Nico returned home with his treasures, he was “very loud and proud” about it.
“He waltzes in and just leaves the items, usually in the hallway, for us to stumble across.”
The thefts started in the evening, but Clark said Nico’s activities have spread throughout the day.
“We’ll go out during the day and we’ll come home and there will be several socks left as gifts in the hallway for us.”
But she said they had not been able to find many owners.
“I’ve done the walk of shame a couple of times, up our long driveway and onto our street, and had some conversations with our neighbours, leaving our contact details in case they are missing any items.
“I’ve found the odd pair of socks and kids clothing that the owners have claimed, but apart from that we really have no idea how far he’s actually going to bring these items back.”
She had posted details on local social media pages, but have not had much luck.
“I’ve got to the point where there is just so much, it just gets thrown into a box until such time as we can find where they belong.”
Clark admitted she had not spoken to any animal psychologists about Nico’s apparent kleptomania.
“The way that we view it is that we just loves us, and we see it as he’s bringing us gifts, because he wants to share the love.”
rnz.co.nz
