Photo: Stian Alexander
A thief, a crook, a robber, a lifter, a pickpocket, a pilferer, a cat burglar. When a small neighborhood discovered that more than 20 sets of house and car keys had gone missing, where did they place their blame? Probably not on a neighborhood cat named Milo.
Milo, the culprit behind the disappearance of said pieces, had taken them all from the neighborhood homes of the Stoke Newington residents in north east London. Milo wears a magnetic collar around her neck so she can access the cat flap in her owner's home. Many of the homes in Stoke Newington have cat flaps. Kirsten Alexander, Milo's owner, had no idea that Milo had been sneaking into the homes of the neighbors while she was at work. It wasn't until Alexander saw Milo coming back through the cat flap one day, collar covered with a clutter of keys, that she realized what was going on.
"When I saw her coming through the cat flap with a set of keys round her neck I thought 'poor thing' because her neck was really weighed down, and then it dawned on me what was happening,” she said. "I've given all the keys back and luckily neighbours have seen the funny side of it."
Photo: Stian Alexander
I can think of three possibilities, one Lilo likes the sound or bling the keys provide, two, the weight of the keys are comfortable for him, or three, the weight reduces the binding of the collar on the throat. I think the latter could be the case, but I'm not Milo.