Sneaky fox caught stealing $300 blue suede shoes from front doorstep of Melbourne home

A Sunbury man has trawled through hours of CCTV to solve the mystery of his missing $300 shoes. Here’s how he got them back from this curious creature.

A sneaky fox with a taste for high fashion has been unmasked as the thief of a $300 pair of blue suede shoes.

The mystery marauder was caught on CCTV slinking up to Jimmy House’s front door in a new residential estate in the dead of night and making off with the flashy footwear.

READ MORE:

FOX CAUGHT BURYING GOLF BALLS IN GARDEN

FUNNY CATS CAUGHT IN AWKWARD SLEEP POSITIONS

PET DOG TAKES POSSUM FOR PIGGYBACK RIDE

CCTV shows a fox stealing Jimmy House’s shoe from his front door in Sunbury.

The fox steals a shoe from the front door before making its getaway.

Perhaps it was a bizarre case of mistaken identity — the fuzzy leather shoes may well have borne a passing resemblance to a tasty rabbit.

As he headed out for work at 6.15am on Monday last week in his socks, Mr House expected to find the navy blue Aquila shoes at the front door where he left them.

“I’d left them out on the Friday night because I’d mowed the lawn and watered the lawn in them and they had grass clippings on them,” said Mr House, from Sunbury in Melbourne’s northwest.

“But I couldn’t find them on the Monday for the life of me. I blamed everyone — my siblings, my housemate, my mates. I even blamed my mum!”

After spending the day messaging family and friends in vain, the 33-year-old resolved to trawl through his security camera footage to nab the shoe thief.

“I’m a massive Game of Thrones fan, so I couldn’t wait to get home and watch Game of Thrones on the Monday afternoon after work, but I had to put that on the backburner,” the plumbing operations manager said.

The fox takes off with its prize catch.

Jimmy House with his $300 shoes that were nicked by a fox. Picture: Rob Leeson

“So I sat down and watched my CCTV vision for two hours to find out who had moved them, and I almost fell over in the kitchen when I realised what had happened.

“At 3.30 on the Sunday morning, Mr Fox had decided that he wanted a pair of shoes. Maybe he thought they looked like a rabbit or something? It was very funny!”

Luckily, one of the two video camera angles caught the direction the fox had taken with the shoe — towards the vacant lot over the road.

“I took my dalmatian for a walk and I found them in the paddock across the road,” Mr House said.

“One of them has got a little bit of a chomp mark on the front, but you can’t really tell — they’re good as gold.

“I actually couldn’t find the other trip (on the video) when he got the other one, but he definitely took both shoes from the front door.

“But it says something for my foot odour if not even a fox wants them!”

[e-mail]