A Friday Crime Scene!

How good are your detective skills? You are not going to believe this!

Who do you think would steal my sea Armadillo shells?

We have been collecting Armadillo type sea snails for a while now on the beaches, and I put them outside at home in order for them to dry out so that I can put them on a shelf in the house.
But somebody was stealing the shells and most mornings when I went outside, I found the shells laying in the road of the complex, or near our front gate?
Puzzling indeed, but we have some cats in the complex so I decided to do some detective work.

The list of 5 suspects!

Young Noel (first picture above) is of course suspect number 1, as he fits the bill.
He chases anything and runs off with the children's tennis balls.

Suspect No. 2, Milly is a friendly soul that visits our garden regularly. However, she helps herself to the dried worms that we lay out for the robins.

Suspect No.3, Tiger is a more furtive character that always slinks around! A very suspicious guy this!

Suspect No. 4. Fudgy is also a very friendly soul that likes sweet stuff! You must see how she enjoys the choc-chip cookies that our neighbor spoils her with.

Suspect No. 5. Shiela is a bit of a lazy soul and the least suspected. But...one never knows with black cats!

The Crime Scene!

This is my collection of shells laid out to dry!

Here you can see that somebody rearranged the shells and some are missing!

The evidence was recklessly left all over the place, but I don't have a fingerprint machine Lol.

Look how damaged this small shell is. Heartbreaking isn't it? I walk miles to collect these beautiful specimens, and now here they are laid out to die!

So I went early morning, when it was still dark, to go and sit in a secret spot in the garden; waiting for the suspect to show themselves. Of course, I was armed with a water gun, as I know that cats are allergic to water.
Eventually the suspect appeared...and I was so surprised, that I dropped the water gun and startled a robin that was sitting close to me.

And here is the surprise thief!

Totally unbelievable and I was shocked out of my shoes. A squirrel that likes fish?
Not any squirrel, but our wild little "Squirry" that is so fond of my wife Marian.
I really felt betrayed Lol.

Caught red handed in the act of feasting on my shells.

Don't believe me? Watch this video!

Stealing sea shells is thirsty work and someone has to have a drink hahaha!

And there you have it, the mystery is solved and I will now sprinkle some cayenne pepper on the shells.
No, no, don't condemn me as I am only joking. We will leave Squirry to clean the shells out and only hope that the shells will stay intact. I was just so surprised at the discovery that squirrels also eat fish, or clean out shells.
Now I will apologize to each of the cats by giving each one a fresh sardine.
Life is never what we think it is?

On a serious note here, the life lesson is to never be presumptuous. We see a person for the first time and we think that they are this or that. But oh how surprised we are when we discover that they turn out to be exactly the opposite to what we thought. How many erroneous judgements have we made due to our errant presumptions?
Captain John Smith presumed that all was safe on the Titanic, as it was unsinkable.
The main character in "Papillon" (a book by Henry Charriere) was given a life sentence in jail because they presumed that he was guilty, yet he was totally innocent.
One can only wonder how many of us were harmed by the false presumptions of others.
If it is not fact, leave it alone. Simple!

We hope that you have enjoyed the story and thank you for visiting a post by @papilloncharity