The scene of the crime. Photo / Supplied
An unexpected visitor via a chimney left its mark last night – but its “gifts” were a lot less wanted than Santa’s annual arrival.
Residents of a home in the Auckland suburb of Te Atatu were shocked to wake up this morning and discover the mess left by their overnight visitor – a possum.
Jasper Gapusan and his wife slept through the unwanted visit.
But they woke today to discover their living room was a shambles. After seeing paw prints they initially thought the mess was made by a cat.
But then Gapusan had a realisation: "I thought a cat can't make this mess, the whole lounge is trashed."
The intruder is thought to be a possum, says Gapusan.
Gapusan thinks the only way the possum could have got inside was through the chimney, because all the windows were closed and the fireplace's metal cover was knocked over, as were his plants and pots.
The damage done was no laughing matter. Gapusan said their couch pillows, office table and walls had paw marks, and there was "wees and poos" everywhere.
The fluffy trespasser wasn't so clever at disguising its identity, leaving paw prints on the walls of the lounge.
It even left its paw marks on paintings.
Some indoor plants had also been eaten.
Gapusan says they were lucky the living room door was closed because the possum could have come into the bedroom, or the rest of the house - "that really frightens me".
Gapusan said a turtle tank in the living room had a "basking" area; (a second level of the tank that is out of the water, with a spotlight to give their turtle a place to warm up and dry off.
Gapusan said possum-sized excrement was later found in the basking area.
"The whole day we haven't seen the turtle come up to the basking area, usually he is always there He's scared, maybe something happened, maybe the possum tried to eat him or something."
He joked that the unwelcome guest "had a drink, he had a fish, turtle menu and a vege to balance the diet".
He suspects the little intruder got out the way it came in. But he has still been checking every corner of the house to make sure the possum isn't still inside.
After he posted the story and photos to their local community Facebook page "it went kind of viral now it probably has 70 comments".
He says he got responses from the community helping him out to prevent this happening again, suggesting a mesh cover.
It's understood a NZDF aircraft and multiple helicopters are involved.