Fire station's mysterious cat burglar in a West Midlands market town turns out to be... a cat
Firefighters in Tenbury Wells have discovered that a series of burglar alarms going off at their fire station were caused by a missing cat.
The crew at Tenbury Wells Fire Station had been alerted to a number of overnight alarm activations in the last few days.
The alarm saw both the fire crew and police officers called to the station but despite extensive searches in the area, no sign of an intruder was found or any thing missing.
The alarm was tripped several nights in a row, leaving the fire crew and West Mercia Police perplexed.
However, the mystery was resolved after the crew discovered a missing cat was the culprit.
Watch Commander Ian Bowkett said: “Last week Ruth and David Pocknell, who own the house that backs on to the fire station, came around to let us and our police colleagues know that their cat Portia had been missing since August 24.
“We thought no more about it until this week when the alarm at the station went off each night – our crew and the police turned out but found nothing.
“Then, last night, someone took a picture of a cat in the station window.
“And this morning we discovered Portia was hiding behind the fire station’s washing machine."
He said the cat and its owners were now happily reunited.
“It’s absolutely wonderful and we are over the moon to get her back,” said Ruth Pocknell. “David and I are so very grateful to everyone at the station and all who helped to find her and spread the word on social media that we were looking for her.
“She looks no different to when she went missing.”
