LONDON –– An unusual Freedom of Information release from the Metropolitan Police – published in April and unearthed recently on Twitter by FOIMonkey – has detailed some wildly bizarre instances of animal thievery in the UK's capital.
The Metropolitan Police responded to a request for the details of "allegations of the theft of livestock" that took place from 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2015 in the release, and – to cut a long story short – it's been a pretty strange three years.
An £80 pygmy goat, 30 gold fish worth £10 each, four mice totalling £47.96, a £100 iguana, and a grand total of nearly £20,000 worth of birds and fowl are among the random assortment of animals alleged to have been stolen in Greater London.
Things like this also happened.
This Met. Police FOI release about livestock theft includes the theft of two 2ft teddy bears & a bag of mosquitos: http://t.co/tjCQ18k1he— FOI Monkey (@FOIMonkey) July 7, 2015
According to the release, the stolen mosquitos were apparently live and the bag was lying on the floor unattended (an absolute magnet for mosquito thieves, in other words). The "2 x teddy bears, both approx 2 foot tall" – which we're fairly sure don't come under even the loosest definition of "livestock" – were taken during a burglary after a balcony door was left open.
The FOI release is almost as strange as some of the crimes it details. As well as including incidents which definitely don't involve livestock, the Met have also taken great pains to remove the victims' names.
The Met redacted the name of this tortoise in an FOI response. http://t.co/njg2kBGKIi (spotted by @FOIMonkey) pic.twitter.com/40ed3aIaQQ— Matt Burgess (@mattburgess1) July 7, 2015
It's a strange, strange world we live in – a world where people are apparently stealing each other's pet tarantulas, boxes of unattended goldfish are being pinched from car parks, and the identities of pet tortoises are being concealed by the Metropolitan Police.
What's going on, London?