Out-foxed! Cunning four-legged thief steals Leeds family's egg deliveries

Mum Helen Greenwood, of Chapel Allerton, was stumped when her order of milk and eggs from local supplier, TD Goodall, was repeatedly missing eggs - yet the milk was always there on the doorstep, untouched.

In attempt to solve the riddle, the family set up a webcam overnight and were stunned when they watched the footage back and uncovered the identity of the brazen thief.

Caught on camera, a short while after the milkman had been, was a cunning fox, sneaking up to the front door to steal the eggs - box and all.

Helen, 42, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "We have been getting our milk delivered by a milkman (TD Goodall) and for the past couple of weeks had been asking for eggs to be delivered too. But we hadn’t been getting them – the milk would be there but no eggs.

"We were getting suspicious that something was going on, so we set up a webcam to see if we could work out the mystery of the missing eggs.

"We left the webcam running overnight. In the morning, we couldn’t believe it when we looked at the recorded clips.

"It had recorded the milkman delivering the milk and a dozen eggs, carefully placing them in the box on our front step.

"And then a while later, along comes a fox and steals the eggs, box and all! We were so impressed at how clever the fox was – I assumed a fox would end up knocking over bottles of milk, but it left no trace at all."

Helen posted the video on to a local Facebook page - and it appears the fox has been busy across the entire neighbourhood.

Comments included: "This could be why we've not been getting eggs", "That's exactly what happened to us" and "I keep finding eggs and egg shells in our garden".

Helen said: "It’s clear from reactions to the video that this is not an unusual case.

"It’s slightly annoying to have lost our eggs, but it’s satisfying to have solved the mystery and gives us something to laugh about in the current climate. Maybe it’s an example of how the wildlife are reclaiming the city during the lockdown."

Roger Fawcus, of TD Gooddall Dairy, said several customers had been contacting them about missing eggs so he was pleased the mystery had now been solved.

He said: "We had had a number of people complaining, saying no-one has delivered our eggs. I spoke with the milkman who said 'No I've definitely delivered them'."

He said: "It's quite amusing to see the little fella helping himself. It's something that our customers have to get around so we're recommending in future that people leave a box out and hopefully that will foil the fox."

As a quirky side note - when Helen and family initially set up the webcam, the footage showed another unexpected visit - of some kind-hearted policemen making a special Easter delivery.

She said: "When we first put the camera up to test it, instead of catching the egg thief, we caught the local policemen actually delivering some chocolate eggs instead."

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