Just when you thought it was safe to start leaving your shoes on the front porch again, it seems Watsonia’s resident foot-fetish fox is back on the prowl. Mainstream media picked up the frisky news item last week when it reported the recent theft of a single thong from a front porch in our normally peaceful suburb, with the assailant allegedly returning a couple of nights later to snatch the other thong and an additional shoe.

At this stage it remains unclear whether the crafty Canidae is planning to build a small collection to test the resale market, or just stealing the footwear for personal use. The crime wave comes just over four years since a similar spate of thefts were captured on CCTV at another Watsonia residence. In that case, the fox in question also took a single thong, but then randomly added a baseball to its collection of stolen items. Authorities are refusing to rule out a link between these two incidents.

Regardless of the motivation behind this latest threat on law and order in Watsonia, residents are being encouraged to keep all footwear locked away and out of sight from potential predators. Considering that foxes have four legs, they are believed to be twice as likely to want to steal shoes.