A four-legged shoe thief with expensive tastes is believed to be on the loose in Mosgiel.
Stirling Cres resident Lawrence Walls has lost two shoes from his back-door enclosure in separate incidents in the past few weeks and believes the culprit is a black Labrador.
The first time it happened, when he lost a leather slip-on sandal, he thought he had just misplaced it, but then could not find it anywhere.
"I saw a Labrador sniffing around my shoes and I told him to ... go."
Then, the following week, another shoe went, this time a nearly new casual leather shoe.
"It takes the expensive ones, not the cheap ones, and it must be a left-footed dog. He's got good taste."
Nothing had gone missing during the past week, possibly because he had put all his good shoes up higher or inside and left the cheap ones on the middle rack from where the other ones had disappeared, Mr Walls said.
"I wanted to see if it would pinch those ones. You've got to laugh."
He did not hold a grudge against the dog, believing it was just natural behaviour and it was "unfortunate luck" he had been targeted.
Mr Walls' daughter, Lorraine Whaanga, decided to attempt to get to the bottom of the mystery and when she knocked on doors around the neighbourhood, she discovering at least one other resident had lost a shoe. However, she failed to find the dog's owner.
"We thought it was a joke to start with, but he'd only worn those shoes once."
She hoped the dog's owner might return the shoe, which was a Rhino brand, even if they were embarrassed about their dog's actions.
