An Arizona woman got a shock when surveillance footage revealed that a fox had stolen three of her backyard trail cameras in just 10 minutes.
Esmeralda Egurrola lives in a house that backs up to a wedge of open desert at the base of Safford Peak, better known as Sombrero Peak, in the Tucson Mountains of Arizona.
Four years ago, Egurrola was given Blink motion-activated cameras as a gift. She decided to set them up along her back fence to see what kind of wildlife the cameras might film.
However, last Monday, Egurrola noticed that her three motion-activated cameras appeared offline. So, she checked the most recent recording in each camera from an app on her cellphone.
According to the Arizona Daily Star, when Egurrola saw the footage on her smartphone, she could hardly believe her eyes.
Her three cameras had been stolen one after another by a fluffy-tailed gray fox in the span of 10 minutes. The footage from the devices captured the entire heist carried out by the animal.
The Arizona Daily Star reports that the fox’s crime spree started at about 04:00 and was captured in a series of 5-second clips.
In the first scene, the fox walks up and sticks its snout on the lens of the first camera. In the second scene, captured by the second camera, it trots back into the bushes with camera one in its mouth.
The animal then returns for the second camera. Finally, as the fox trots off with the third camera, the animal records a clip of its front paws padding through the desert.
According to The Associated Press, Egurrola tried to search for the three cameras, which cost around $200, but could not see any sign of them. She believes they are sitting in a fox hole.
“So what if I do happen to see them. Am I really going to poke my hand in there? Finders keepers,” Egurrola tells The Associated Press.
She reportedly plans to eventually get new cameras. However, this time Egurrola will make sure the recording devices are tied down.
“I may leave one untied with a tracker,” Egurrola adds.