PICKLES SAVES THE DAY
ON March 20, 1966, five months before England’s players held aloft the Jules Rimet trophy as World Cup winners, it was stolen from a display case at Westminster Central Hall in London.
The following day a £15,000 ransom demand was received along with part of the trophy’s lining, from a man calling himself “Jackson”.
Police tracked him down – a petty thief called Edward Betchley – and arrested him but the trophy remained missing.
That was until a few days later when a dog called Pickles, owned by Dave Corbett, sniffed at a package wrapped in newspaper that had been discarded under a hedge in south London.
He was astonished to discover the cup inside, handed it in and the collie became a national hero.
Betchley was convicted for his involvement, but it’s since been claimed that gangster Sidney Cugullere was behind the theft and did it for a thrill, before the cup ended up being dumped. He died in 2005.
The trophy was stolen again in 1983 from the Brazilian football HQ by a gang and this time disappeared for good, possibly melted down for the gold.
A new trophy has been awarded since.