Cat-napper takes neighbours' pets ... and dumps them 25 miles away

When their cats started to disappear mysteriously, the residents of Bramley Crescent were understandably puzzled and distressed.

Desperate for their return, they handed out hundreds of leaflets and put up posters with photographs appealing for information about the seven missing pets.



But this week the search took a disturbing and sinister twist. Each family received an anonymous letter from the 'person responsible for the disappearance of your cats'.

The printed note, littered with grammatical errors, explained that the cats had been caught and driven at least 25 miles away and let loose.

This malicious act was a form of revenge for the animals apparently vandalising the catnapper's garden - on the very same street. The pets had pounced on birds, leaving feathers scattered all over the lawn, and destroyed plants and shrubs by using flowerbeds to relieve themselves.



And although the anonymous culprit assures the residents that their none of the cats have been harmed, the letter chillingly warns that if any are returned to their owners and subsequently caught for a second time, 'they will be destroyed'.

So far seven cats have vanished from the street in Southampton, although the letter-writer only admits to taking six.