A cat with the distinguished name of Ómar Ingimundar has become notorious for stealing various items from people in his neighbourhood, RÚV reports, making off with whatever he can carry.
His owners have been unable to stop his compulsive criminal behaviour and have decided to set up a lost-and-found bin outside of their homes. Ómar is a well-known thief in his neighbourhood, so those who discover that items of theirs have mysteriously disappeared will be able to check this bin to see if they have also fallen prey to Ómar’s criminal enterprise.
While none of this has yet been proven in a court of law, Ómar is suspected to be entering the laundry rooms of at least four or five different households and taking whatever he pleases. This includes work gloves, woolen shirts, winter hats, and socks. His crimes appear to be pre-meditated, as his owner Kristín Ómarsdóttir tells reporters: “Cozy socks, often in pairs; actually always in pairs. Always one sock at a time, he goes back and steals the other.”
Ómar’s crimes have escalated as well. Whereas at first he was stealing older, more used clothing items, he has more recently set his sights on newer, more expensive items.
“We have to get these items back to their owners in some way,” Ásmundur Þór Sveinsson told reporters. “One idea is to put a box outside the house so people can look for their belongings.”
For his part, Ómar has refused to comment, and deliberately avoided the news crew when they sought him out.
Serial theft is not a new behaviour for cats in general, least of all cats in the greater Reykjavík area. The Grapevine has reported on at least two separate incidents of cats stealing similar items from their neighbours.
Even shoplifting is not beneath Reykjavík cats, as the staff of downtown convenience store Krambúðin are all too aware. This store has been plagued by a cat who regularly steals bags of harðfiskur, and then has the audacity to protest when made to leave the premises.
Above photo not of any of the suspected criminal cats.
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