GrrlScientist reports on her Punctuated Equilibrium blog over at the Guardian that a cat burglar has been stalking a San Mateo, California neighborhood. In this case the thief is 6-year-old Dusty, a mixed-breed housecat.  Dusty prowls the neighborhood at night and grabs gloves, shoes, toys and other items from his neighbors' yards and carries them home to share with his family.  His record is 11 items in a single night, and he seems to favor drying swimsuits.

Local station ABC 7 caught him in the act with their night vision camera. Watch their report:

Apparently Dusty's neighbors are understanding about his behavior, as they know where to go to find their missing items.

Dusty isn't the only feline thief roaming our cities and suburbs. Apparently this sort of "misdirected predation" behavior is not uncommon in urban cats. The UK cat site Moggies.co.uk has a whole collection of cat thief stories - and those are just the ones who both got caught and had stories written about them.

Personally, if I had a cat I'd much prefer a "gift" of the neighbor's flip flops than a half-dead mouse.