After over a year of random items going missing at a New Zealand school, the culprit has finally been unmasked.
New Zealand’s Stuff reports that the mysterious thief of the Apanui School in the town of Whakatāne was finally caught on film, and actually turned out to be a cat.
The cat had snuck into the school to swipe things including towels, goggles, shoes and underwear, particularly when the school pool was in use.
“Things would go missing or we would find a single shoe and never ever find the other shoe,” says Principal Marama Stewart. “If someone’s gonna take your shoes, they generally take two.”
The cat belongs to a local family who wishes to remain anonymous — “They were pretty embarrassed about their cat,” Stewart notes. She adds that the school has named the cat Slinky Malinki after the feline character in a series of New Zealand children’s books.
“I think we’re going to have a lot of fun writing stories about our own school’s Slinky Malinki,” says Stewart. “And it might help our kids to remember to put their things in their bag!”