The cat (burglar) came back
Years after vanishing into the night, a thief has returned to a quiet New Plymouth suburban home – but instead of taking from the owners, this cat burglar is leaving them his ill-gotten gains.
Each morning, when Bruno and Kathi Egli wake up, they look out the window and check their driveway.
‘‘I think, ‘I wonder if he’s left us anything today’,’’ Kathi said.
On and off between 2014 and 2017, the retired couple found random items of clothing and footwear metres from their house in Frankleigh Park, with no idea who it belonged to or where it had come from.
Slippers and babies’ shoes were among the first objects to be left.
‘‘Just one item at a time,’’
Bruno said.
Originally, they assumed someone had dropped them on their way past, but guessed that wasn’t the case when it continued.
In 2017, they shared the strange events with the Daily News.
‘‘It ended up in the paper and the cat stopped,’’ Bruno said. ‘‘It must have been subscribing.’’
For the last four years the Eglis have had no deliveries at their Doralto Rd property.
They assumed the cat’s owner had started keeping it in at night.
Then, ‘‘suddenly’’, this year they found a gardening glove, and then a stocking, outside.
The Eglis would wash the items and put them on their letterbox in case their owners walked past and spotted their belongings.
But nothing has been claimed, so they throw most of it away.
‘‘Then good stuff started to appear,’’ Bruno said.
Kathi pulled out their latest haul – a child’s woollen glove, a mustard beanie, a blanket, a onesie and a pair of socks with toucans on them.
‘‘This is the best loot we’ve had. We could open an op shop,’’ she said.
The couple think their driveway concrete stays warm, which is why their house has been chosen.
Plus, it is a ‘‘no man’s land’’ for animals and the Eglis do not have any pets.
They even put up a scarecrow that makes noise to try to scare cats off their lawn but they’ve had no luck.
Now, they have got two options for what to do next.
‘‘We’re either having a baby, so we can use this stuff, or we’ll be able to return it to the owners,’’ Bruno said.
‘‘I think that’s an impossibility,’’ Kathi said of conceiving.
The pair have posted to Neighbourly and other social media sites in the hope of finding the home of the ‘‘virtually brand new’’ items and potentially identifying the culprit.
‘‘It would be nice to be able to return them,’’ Bruno said.