Two years of torment: serial clothes thief caught red-pawed. Video / Supplied
For more than two years many residents of Auckland’s Kohimarama had fallen victim to a serial clothes thief. Clotheslines were being raided at will, neighbours would be missing socks, and even a stray pair of underwear would be taken, raising suspicions around the intentions of the culprit.
Fingers were being pointed at flatmates or next-door neighbours, and partners were being accused of tampering with the washing.
But finally, after endless torment, the culprit targetting the homes of Kohimarama has been caught in the act on camera.
It wasn’t the neighbour, and it wasn’t the flatmate to blame. Instead, it was Lenny the KleptoCat, a handsome ginger-and-white-faced angel by day, and feline thief by night.
For weeks local resident Phoebe had tried to detract Lenny from his antics after witnessing him taking off with her flatmate’s collection of socks.
Then on June 3, she was lying in bed when Lenny came creeping over. She took her chance and managed to film the cuddly bandit in the act.
Lenny could be seen on his hind legs reaching for the clothes horse before staring straight at Phoebe with a sock in his mouth. Being caught red-pawed didn’t stop Lenny as he trotted off back home to add to his collection.
Lenny the Kohimarama sock bandit was caught red-pawed.
“A few months ago I witnessed him stealing a tea towel but managed to scare him off before he ran away with it. Didn’t really think much of it until a couple of weeks ago my flatmate’s entire collection of clean socks disappeared from outside,” she told the Herald.
“We still didn’t think too much of it until last weekend when I was just in bed and saw the cat come over to the washing outside. I went to go take a video as a joke saying ‘It’s the sock stealer’ and just happened to catch him in the act of stealing.
“This has honestly been the weirdest yet funniest thing to happen.”
The truth is that this wasn’t Lenny’s first rodeo, and it sure won’t be his last, according to his human parents Dee-Anna Priday and Dave Butler.
Just a tiny portion of Lenny's latest haul.
Lenny’s owners say the mountains of socks have been appearing for more than two years and keep piling up.
“I might be to blame,” Butler admitted to the Herald.
“We got him as a kitten in 2021 from the SPCA. We got him home and we purchased a cage to initially contain him. That lasted about five minutes before he got out of it.
“On day two I decided to scrunch up a ball of paper and throw it to see if he’d chase it. On the first go, he retrieved it and brought it back. Now it’s socks and the occasional pair of undies he’s bringing back.”
But it’s not just the socks he’s after. A number of bizarre items have come through the cat flap as gifts for his human parents Butler and Priday.
“Day after day he would come back from a construction site with gloves, single initially, but would then go back for the full pair. I can picture these workmen going ‘where the hell are my gloves’ before blaming each other,” Butler explained.
The collection continued to grow, ranging from a pair of boy’s track pants to a newborn baby’s singlet and a single size 11 football boot stuck in the cat flap.
It's not just socks that Lenny enjoys bringing home.
But Lenny’s parents say the best story is when he came home with a note that was destined for a schoolteacher.
“He once stole a note for a teacher excusing a pupil for not being at school that day. Presumably with Lenny nicking it, maybe it never got delivered and a student got in trouble.
“Despite his fairly cute face, he’s a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde. One minute you’re patting them and lovable and the next they’re playing up.”
Lenny’s antics are so prolific that he has his own Facebook page, which gets updated regularly with photos of his latest haul.
Lenny occasionally takes a break to plot his next crime wave.
Most weeks Priday and Butler put out a call for victims to come forward to collect their lost - or stolen - property.
The paw-lice have yet to lock Lenny up in his carry cage, meaning the furry bandit is free to continue his crime spree around Kohimarama.
