Cats, raccoons and other furry critters wreaked havoc across the United States in 2025. File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
Dec. 4 (UPI) — There are many persuasive reasons to love animals: they can be cute, cuddly and occasionally even hilarious. But sometimes even the most precious pets and winsome wildlife can find themselves on the wrong side of the law.
The UPI Odd News headlines are filled with stories of animals expanding their families, engaging in heartwarming reunions, surviving treacherous situations and occasionally even saving lives.
There is a darker side to the animal kingdom, however, and even the cutest of creatures can sometimes turn to crime out of desperation, curiosity, misguided notions or just plain boredom.
Here are five times animals made the Odd News headlines for all the wrong reasons:
The Merced SPCA in California shared security camera photos in October that captured a family’s foster cat spicing up their dinner.
The pictures show the foster cat, Wendy, dropping a dead mouse into the pot as it cooks on the stove.
“Wendy is a foster failure that was caught on the kitchen cam — or kitten cam — adding ‘spice’ to her mom’s dinner,” officials wrote. “We should all be as thoughtful as Miss Wendy!”
That same month, a security camera at a North Carolina firefighter’s home captured the moment his family dog sparked a fire by chewing on a device with a lithium-ion battery.
The Chapel Hill Fire Department shared footage showing the dog, Colton, jumping back when the device he had been chewing on begins to emit a large amount of smoke and quickly sets the living room rug ablaze.
The fire did not spread beyond the rug, and Colton was not injured.
Grand theft straw-beary ice cream
Deputies from the El Dorado County Sheriff’s Office in California were summoned on an early August morning to the Ice Cream Shop at Camp Richardson in South Lake Tahoe on a report of a burglary.
“The deputies could barely believe their eyes as they saw a large bear behind the counter of the shop,” the post said.
The sheriff’s office said the bear, which only showed interest in the strawberry ice cream, left the shop “with some encouragement” from deputies.
A deer smashed through a window at the Amherst Junior High cafeteria in Amherst, Ohio, as staff were preparing breakfast for the school’s students in November.
“As shocking as the event was to witness, we are happy to report that no significant injuries took place, although a couple of students and staff members were present in the cafeteria when the deer came through the window,” principal Andrew Hoffman said in a news release.
Hoffman said that staff, with the help of the Amherst Police Department, were able to “barricade and contain the deer,” guiding it onto the stage before leading it out of the cafeteria’s back door.
Hanover County Animal Protection and Shelter in Virginia said on social media that an animal control officer responded to a report of an animal break-in at the ABC store in Ashland on Nov. 29.
The officer found the Black Friday break-in had been perpetrated by a raccoon, which had “ransacked several shelves,” sampled multiple different varieties of liquor from broken bottles and then settled down to sleep it off on the floor of the store’s bathroom.
The raccoon’s “liquor-fueled rampage” came to an end when the officer “secured our masked bandit and transported him back to the shelter to sober up before questioning,” the post said.