Maybe he’s trying to tell me something! ‘Kleptomaniac’ cat burglar called Merlin repeatedly steals child next door’s foam learning numbers – so owner vows to use them for lottery
- Jay Parkinson said his cat Merlin regularly steals foam numbers from next door
- The 6-year-old tuxedo cat is fond of the child next door’s numbered learning mat
- Footage shows how the cat crosses the boundary fence carrying the bounty
- Mr Parkinson said he is considering using the numbers selected for the lottery
This ‘kleptomaniac’ cat repeatedly steals the foam learning numbers from a child next door – so his owner has vowed to use them for the next lottery draw.
Jay Parkinson noticed his six-year-old Tuxedo cat Merlin carry a long foam pipe into his garden five months ago and assumed it was a one-off from his quirky kitty.
However Mr Parkinson went into the garden a week ago and found four large foam numbers from a child’s learning mat, realising his ‘klepto-kitty’ was pinching the digits whenever he got the chance.
Jay Parkinson, 26, pictured with his cat Merlin, left, said the pet regularly steals foam numbers from his next door neighbour’s garden and brings them home
Video footage caught Merlin in the act of stealing next door’s numbers from a child’s foam learning mat
But no matter how many times the numbers are returned across the fence, the cat continues to steal them
Hilarious footage shows Merlin returning from a series of raids on next door’s garden with a variety of large foam numbers and proudly placing them on the patio.
The furry thief can be seen sneaking along the garden fence with a large foam ‘five’ between his teeth, as well as lying next to his collection of spongy spoils. Mr Parkinson, 26, said that after being baffled when the numbers first appeared, he quickly realised his pet kitty was the culprit, and that he clearly had a penchant for pinching things.
Mr Parkinson, from Bournemouth, Dorset, said: ‘In total he’s taken 13 numbers, some of them more than once – he’s a kleptomaniac.
‘I was a bit puzzled where they were coming from. ‘At first I didn’t think it was the cat, and that maybe someone had tried to burgle the house and left these strange foam numbers there – then I thought, ‘It has to be Merlin, there’s no one else it could be’.
‘I just popped them back over the fence for the neighbours but he was bringing them back just as quickly as I was dropping them off.
‘He’s always very proud when he drops them off – like he’s saying ‘this is for you’.
‘We lock him in at night so he made quick work of it once he was out – I let him out at 7am and by 9am there were four big numbers in the garden.
‘He’d probably spotted them the night before and sat through the night thinking about pinching them.’
Mr Parkinson said he has started playing the National Lottery and considers using hte numbers selected each week by Merlin
Mr Parkinson said that he’s been playing the National Lottery since last year, and said that he’s now tempted to take Merlin’s digits as ‘a sign’ and use them for his lottery numbers.
He said: ‘I started doing the lottery during lockdown, so this week I’m going to have to try some of the numbers he’s brought.
‘Maybe it’s meant to be. After all, the lottery is run by Camelot, so maybe Merlin’s trying to tell me something.’
Mr Parkinson, who is a marketing executive, said that while repeatedly giving the numbers back to his neighbours isn’t how he expected to spend his Sunday, it’s better than what most people’s cats normally bring into the garden.
He added: ‘I’d much rather foam numbers than anything else a cat would normally bring in.
‘It’s usually mice and robins, and the numbers are much easier to clean up as well.’
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