A family has been left heartbroken and bemused after a woman appeared to walk off with their cat in the middle of the night.
CCTV footage captured the strange incident in Acocks Green, Birmingham, in the early hours of Monday morning (December 13).
The cat's owner, Salahudin Ali, said he checked the camera after his beloved pet Gucci didn't return home.
And was 'shocked and angry' by what he saw, Birmingham Live reports.
The video appeared to show a woman walk by the house in Douglas Road, on three occasions in the early hours, each time stopping to pet the cat which was sitting on the garden wall.
Over the course of over an hour, the woman could be seen playing with Gucci, fussing the cat while smoking a cigarette and even taking a selfie with her.
At around 2.45am, she picked up the black and white cat and walked off with her down the street.
"I was shocked and angry when I saw it," said dad-of-three Salahudin, 42.
"To see that someone had the audacity to take someone's pet without any visible regret whatsoever and think that's okay, it was upsetting to see.
"This woman was loitering outside our house for at least an hour before she took the cat. She spent ten or 15 minutes playing with her before she picked her up and walks off.
"We've had Gucci since she was a kitten and she is a much-loved family pet. She is treated like a queen, she's very spoiled.
"She doesn't like being picked up by strangers and you can see in the video she's very reluctant to go.
"The kids were very upset, we were distraught.
"I couldn't stop thinking about it, that she was taken from right under our noses. I couldn't believe it."
After the footage was posted on social media, a man living a mile away found Gucci on Tuesday afternoon and contacted Salahudin through Facebook.
"We're very happy she's home," said Salahudin. "She seems a bit shaken up and isn't herself but she's OK.
"I'm still angry and we've reported it to the police so hopefully they will investigate because what if this woman decides to do this to someone else's cat?
"We all lost a lot of sleep wondering where she was. I know our cat and she stays near the house, she doesn't walk off."
A spokesperson for West Midlands Police said: "We were called on Monday at 3.23pm about a cat being stolen.
"The cat was later found happily walking down the street."
