TUCSON, Arizona: An Arizona woman got a huge shock when surveillance footage showed the thief who stole her backyard cameras was four-legged and fluffy-tailed.

       Esmeralda Egurrola, of Tucson, noticed on Dec 11 that her three motion-activated cameras appeared off-line. So, she checked the most recent recording in each camera from an app on her cellphone.

       Three videos had documented an entire heist carried out by a gray fox.

       “I saw him sniffing and messing with camera one. I went to the second video, which was camera two. It caught him with camera one in his mouth,” Egurrola told The Associated Press on Friday. “That’s when I knew, ‘Omigosh I think he took all of them’.”

       Egurrola shared video and photos of the intruder fox-trotting away on Facebook. It didn’t take long for reactions to snowball. It was first reported by the Arizona Daily Star.

       She tried to search for the cameras, which were a gift and cost around US$200 (RM932), but saw no sign of them. She believes they are sitting in a fox hole.

       “So what if I do happen to see them. Am I really going to poke my hand in there? Finders keepers,” Egurrola said.

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       She plans to eventually get new cameras. Only she will make sure they are tied down.

       “I may leave one untied with a tracker,” Egurrola said. – AP