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Stories often appear in the news about cats who lead double lives as burglars. There was Mo the Cat’s two-year reign of terror in Auckland, New Zealand, stealing clothes and underwear off neighbourhood clotheslines. Bella the Cat from Delta, British Columbia was also guilty of the same crime. Meanwhile, Cooper from Canterbury, England had a shoe-stealing habit. And Danny and Bo from Taupō, New Zealand were busted for stealing a neighbourhood child’s teddy bear. In all of these cases, the media played off a familiar term to describe these felines: the cat burglar.
Traditionally, the term cat burglar describes a certain type of human burglar: burglars who have a cat’s ability to stealthily climb into buildings.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “cat burglar” officially entered the English language in 1907. Then, a series of robberies in the London suburb of Streatham were committed by Arthur Edward Young. Young’s skills in climbing into upper-floor windows led the local media to dub him “the cat burglar.” Young’s cat-like skills could not keep him out of the hands of authorities, however. He was finally caught, and in April 1907 Young pleaded guilty to a series of burglaries and possession of £677 in goods and jewelry.
Unlike Arthur Young (or any other human cat burglar), feline cat burglars cannot be punished by criminal law for their thefts. However, if a cat is causing damage to people’s property, the cat’s owner could be found responsible for those damages in a civil court. This would only be the case if it can be proven that the owner was aware of the cat’s troublesome ways, and did nothing to try and prevent the cat from causing trouble.
Have you had a cat cause mischief in your neighbourhood? Was it bothersome? If so, what is the best way to resolve such an issue: reporting the cat to authorities or discussing the problem with the cat’s owner?
