It was the case of the missing shoes.
At a kindergarten in Fukuoka, Japan, 15 shoes mysteriously disappeared in early November, the Associated Press reported.
Prior to the theft, the children had stored their soon-to-be-stolen footwear in cubbyholes near the door.
When the shoes began to go missing, teachers and parents feared the worst: “A disturbed person with a shoe fetish” had stolen them.
After being notified, police set up three cameras at the school.
The shoe thief struck again the following day, this time stealing six.
The thief stole one more shoe on Nov. 11 before police reviewed what the cameras had captured.
Nobody saw it coming.
The footage revealed a furry weasel getting away as it carried a little shoe in its mouth.
Has the danger of deviants going after children increased over the last decade?
Police in Japan installed cameras after nearly two dozen children’s shoes went missing from a kindergarten.
It’s believed that the weasel is taking them back to its nest to keep warm.
Too cute. pic.twitter.com/63L1yt5TxP
— Art Candee 🍿🥤 (@ArtCandee) November 24, 2024
“It’s great it turned out not to be a human being,” Deputy Police Chief Hiroaki Inada told the AP on Nov. 24.
The weasel had a preference, it seems. It only stole the white canvas shoes, likely because they’re lighter to carry.
“We were so relieved,” Gosho Kodomo-en kindergarten director Yoshihide Saito told Japanese broadcaster RKB Mainichi Broadcasting.
The children laughed when they saw the video for themselves.
As for the shoes, they were never recovered, and the kindergarten has since installed nets over the cubbyholes.
But the weasel — believed to be wild — is still at large.
Weasels belong to the Mustelidae family, which includes mink, wolverines, badgers, river otters, and others, according to the Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management.
They are nocturnal animals, and most of their waking hours are spent “hunting, storing excess food, and eating,” according to Live Science.
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