A Mystery Solved In Delaware County: Foxes Caught On Camera Stealing Shoes, Other Items Off People's Porches
MEDIA, Pa. (CBS) -- Shoes have been missing in Delaware County and showing up in odd places. It took months, but the perpetrators have now been caught on camera, and it was quite a surprise.
For months, a den of foxes has been all the talk in Media.
"It's the talk of our neighborhood," Megan Elliott said
They were playful. Cute. Call the kids there they are, playing on the soccer trainer. Again.
Day after day. Lounging and hanging out, the foxes cruise about the backyards along Olive Street.
Berlin Elliott thinks they're cool.
"They're cute," Berlin said.
But, there were unexplained incidents.
Shoes.
Footwear of all kinds -- kicks just showing up, mysteriously in some backyards.
"About mid-May until the end of May, shoes started showing up and we didn't know what was going on," Amy Acquarola said.
In this caught-you-red-handed video, this fox has a flip flop in his mouth.
Case closed.
Turns out, yep, foxes like shoes. And they meander about porches and decks, finding "left out" shoes.
"I think that people just don't wear their shoes in the house, they just leave them outside on their porches, and then all of a sudden, the shoes just started going missing," Elliott said. "It became a mystery."
The Elliott and Acquarola families post about the fox finds with photos of the shoes, looking to reunite them with their owners.
One 40-year-long neighbor said this happened once before, but not on this scale.
The foxy "I'll help myself to your" shoe, New York Times or pet toy drama is quite the comedy for this neighborhood.
"I think that the fox runs the town," Elliott said.