'Klepto Kitty' Videos Go Viral, Show Cat Burglar Stealing Neighbors' Belongings
An orange tabby cat from Portland, Oregon, loves taking random flip-flops.
— -- A life of crime has turned one cat burglar, now appropriately nicknamed the "klepto kitty," into an overnight Internet sensation.
Snorri, an orange tabby cat from Portland, Oregon, has earned notoriety for being the neighborhood shoe-napper, snatching up innocent soles form their owners and bringing them home.
The cat's stealing problem got so bad that his owner, Gabbie Hendel, decided to take action, installing a "cat collar camera" on the feisty feline to help determine where the random objects were coming from.
“The weirdest thing he has stolen was a baby costume,” Hendel wrote to ABC News. “I believe it is a monkey costume for baby.”
The camera was paid for by cat-lovers all over the country on a GoFundMe page and has successfully helped catch the cat's sticky-pawed ways in action, allowing Hendel to more easily return the obscure belongings to their rightful owners.
Snorri isn’t snobby about what he chooses to cat-nap, either. He’ll take everything from shoes, to hats, stuffed animals and even gardening gloves. His personal favorite, however, is definitely flip-flops.
“I think he is such a funny guy, so much character,” Hendel wrote. “I'm glad that others get a kick out of it!”
Sometimes though, her cat’s peculiar hobby can be a bit too much to handle.
“It's a little time consuming, I am a medical student, so we will see how long I can keep it up,” she explained.
The videos of Snorri’s shenanigans are so compelling that Hendel has created a YouTube channel and Instagram account for his newfound followers to stay entertained (and locate their missing items).
Despite the extra work, Hendel has cared about Snorri since the day she found him shivering in a stairwell.
“I thought that if he was still there in the evening I would take him in and try to find his owners,” she recalled. “He was there when I got home, in the same spot, so I brought him in and fed him. He scarfed down some food and fell asleep upside down. Looks like he steals hearts as well as shoes!”