Cannabis cat foils purr-fect crime

Yahoo - AFP, 21 May 2014

A cat smells packages of marijuana seized in the municipality of Tulua
on February 15, 2012 (AFP Photo/Luis Robayo)

Wellington (AFP) - Police in New Zealand have praised a crime-fighting cat that delivered a bag of cannabis to its nonplussed owner.

Rather than leaving a bird or mouse on the doorstep, the cat left a small plastic bag filled with drugs as a gift on Sunday night, prompting its owner to call police in the South Island city of Dunedin.

Officers said they found five grams (0.2 ounces) of cannabis, with an estimated value of NZ$150 ($130).

''You hear of cats bringing dead birds and rats home but certainly in my career I've never seen anything like this before," Sergeant Reece Munro told the Otago Daily Times.

''I guess you never really know who's keeping you honest these days, do you?"

Munro said the owner of the cannabis had not been found, although police were planning to check the plastic bag for fingerprints.

He said the marijuana-sniffing moggy could become a new weapon in the fight against illicit drugs.

''We certainly have police dogs trained to detect drugs -- this might be something police could explore in the future," he said.