A local Epsom resident left the house early in the morning to find the contents of his wallet scattered across his driveway but the wallet was missing. The local described the scene as though “it had actually rained money”. He had noticed his wallet was missing the day before but perceived the situation to be that of simple misplacement of the wallet. He continued with his day hopeful that the wallet would be found soon enough. The morning of the discovery raised alarms and suspicion as to what had actually happened.

The first speculation was that the wallet had been dropped in the driveway whilst coming into the house and picked by a passing pedestrian. After the panic over the possibility of this had slightly subsided, the victim cancelled all of his cards to prevent any unwanted access to the related bank accounts. However, the trepidation that had initially arisen about the wallet being stolen relaxed as the resident began to question why someone in the process of stealing a wallet would leave behind the physical cash and take the cards which would be much harder to access due to the pins and the probability of the owner blocking them once realising they are lost.

This realisation caused the man to come up with a second theory as to what had happened. He then presumed a fox had taken the wallet as it was wandering the streets, hence the scattered notes. After thinking this, the man believed the wallet was gone and he would not find it, despite checking the local streets and bushes just in case. Little did he know that, one month later, the wallet would be returned to him by the good-natured neighbours living across the road. When returning the wallet, the neighbours explained how they found the wallet in their garden and used the driving license to identify who the wallet belonged to with the help of the address written on it.

Despite being seen as creatures who roam the streets and invade bins during the night, foxes are the secret wallet thieves.