Cat burglar Leonardo da Pinchy terrorises NZ city
Fifteen-month-old Leo, now known as Leonardo da Pinchy, has become a local celebrity in Mairangi Bay, a coastal suburb of Auckland, for his unstoppable 'one-cat crimewave'.
And he's got expensive taste. His frequent hauls include silk boxer shorts, thick men's work socks and, in one mortifying episode for his humans, a brand-new $NZ300 ($274) cashmere sweater.
'My daughter was at home sick and she rang me at work saying, 'It's bad, it's bad, this is the worst thing he's brought in, it's really bad,' Leo's owner, Helen North said.
'Because it was beautiful. I was like, 'Ooh, can I keep that?' But I couldn't.'
Instead, North turned to a neighbourhood WhatsApp group to return Leo's stolen goods to their rightful owners. Her usual message: 'Are these your undies?'
But the pilfered stash kept piling up: socks (piles), underwear (loads) and even a stuffed snake (bizarre).
On one record-setting day, Leo returned with nine items, enough for a full outfit if you didn't mind a mix of everything from baby clothes to menswear.
'He brought in a jersey this morning at 10 past 8,' North said. 'The shops hadn't even opened.'
With dozens of items unclaimed, the embarrassed owner took her search for Leo's victims wider this month, posting photos of his hauls on a local Facebook page along with an apology and her address.
The anger North expected over Leo's cat burgling antics didn't eventuate — although one of his targets, who is allergic to cats, now dries her laundry indoors.
'All of our neighbours think he's amazing,' she said. 'Some of them are quite put out that he hasn't actually stolen anything of theirs.'
Still, North has tried everything to curb her cat's laundry obsession, from attempting to keep him indoors to leaving out clothes at home for him to steal. No luck.
'He only wants stuff that he shouldn't have,' she said, adding that she was also unwilling to risk an online suggestion that Leo simply needed another playmate.
Leo's life of crime began when he was first allowed outdoors a year ago. But his family hopes it's just a juvenile phase.
'I hope he grows out of it because I don't want to do this for like, 15 years,' North said. 'This is a lot of admin.'
For now, on the streets of Mairangi Bay, Leonardo da Pinchy remains at large.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
7NEWS
4 days ago
- 7NEWS
Manhunt for accused murderer in Arkansas, US, ends when he stops to get his hair cut
The intense search for a man accused of a grisly double murder in the US last weekend ended on Wednesday when the suspect stopped for a haircut. 'I was in the middle of cutting his hair when detectives came in and got him,' a stylist at Lupita's Beauty Salon and Barber Shop in Springdale, northwest Arkansas, said in a Facebook post. Andrew James McGann, 28, was arrested in connection with the deaths of a married couple attacked and killed while hiking with their two young daughters at a state park in the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas State Police announced on Wednesday. Clinton David Brink, 43, and Cristen Amanda Brink, 41, were found stabbed to death on Saturday on a walking trail in Devil's Den State Park. McGann's DNA matched evidence left at the scene and he admitted to killing the victims during an interview with investigators, officials said at a news conference on Thursday afternoon. Additionally, items seen in a photo of a suspect were found during a search of McGann's home, along with knives, though it is unclear if the weapon used in the crime was among the collected items, Arkansas State Police Major Stacie Rhoads said. McGann faces two counts of capital murder, according to police and jail records. He had recently been hired as a 'teacher candidate' by Springdale Public Schools, according to a district spokesperson, but had not yet started working there. McGann was booked and processed into the Washington County Detention Centre in Fayetteville. Officials said they believe McGann acted alone, indicating that the public is safe. 'I can confirm that we have absolutely no indication, no reason whatsoever to believe there was any connection at all between our suspect and our victims,' Arkansas State Police Colonel Mike Hagar said during Thursday's news conference. A motive for the killings is still being determined, but Hagar said they appear to be 'a completely random event'. McGann recently had moved to Arkansas from Oklahoma and gotten a job at a local school, Rhoads said. Officials declined to give specific details about what led to the arrest, citing the ongoing prosecution. Jail records indicate McCann is being held without bond. His first court appearance was scheduled for Friday morning. He did not have an attorney as of Thursday afternoon, executive director of the Arkansas Public Defender Commission Gregg Parrish said. The Brinks' daughters, ages 7 and 9, were not harmed and are safe with relatives, police said. Law enforcement presence was increased at state parks across Arkansas in response to the killings. Since the weekend, state police had worked with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to track down the suspect and bring 'justice to this family', Hagar said. 'No news can heal the enormous harm done to the Brink family in last weekend's crime, but this announcement is a comfort and reassurance for our State,' Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement on Wednesday. 'Because of their hard work and investigative skill, we were able to take a monster off the streets and bring relief to those two precious girls and the rest of our citizens,' Hagar said. Arrested mid-snip in a barbershop 'It's going to be a haircut and beauty shop,' a law enforcement officer said on Wednesday on audio dispatch radio as officers approached the arrest site, some 7 miles from McGann's address in jail records. 'We're going to have one detained,' an officer said, according to a recording. Meanwhile, a granddaughter of one of the owners of Lupita's Beauty Salon and Barber Shop was in the middle of cutting a man's hair, the shop's owners said in a Facebook video workers posted recounting the scene. The man 'did not speak' when he entered and only indicated what hairstyle he wanted, the owners said. Soon, plainclothes officers walked in and asked the man if he was the owner of a car outside. The man said yes, and the officers arrested him — and collected some of his hair — the shop's owners said on the Facebook video. Officers also identified a vehicle belonging to McGann and arranged via dispatch for it to be towed 'to headquarters', according to the audio recording. Arkansas State Police did not immediately confirm the barbershop where McGann was arrested. The granddaughter does not appear in the video and was too distraught to talk about what happened, someone on the track says. Detectives have asked for camera footage and other information from the salon, according to an unidentified woman in the video who interviews the owners and employees. A former fifth-grade teacher 'Springdale Public Schools can confirm that Andrew McGann was a teacher candidate hired for the upcoming school year, who has not yet begun employment with the district,' Superintendent Jared Cleveland said in a statement. 'This individual has not at any time come into contact with Springdale students or the families we serve,' Cleveland added. 'At this time, we cannot offer any additional information due to the ongoing investigation.' State records show McGann is currently licensed to teach elementary and middle school grades in at least three states: Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas. McGann was most recently a fifth-grade teacher in the Sand Springs Public Schools in Oklahoma, just west of Tulsa, according to the district. 'Andrew McGann was employed at Sand Springs Public Schools from the summer of 2024 to May 2025,' the district said in a written statement. 'At the end of the 2024-25 school year, McGann resigned his position to move out of state.' 'McGann passed all background checks,' the district added. McGann had been a fifth-grade teacher at Spring Creek Elementary in Oklahoma during the 2023-2024 school year, Broken Arrow Public Schools said in a statement. He left 'of his own accord to work out of state', the district said, noting that like all employees, 'he was subjected to and passed the required background checks prior to being hired'. McGann was placed on administrative leave from his teaching job at Donald Elementary in Flower Mound, Texas, in the spring of 2023 over allegations of inappropriate behaviour, like favouritism and uneven treatment of students. An internal investigation, however, found 'no evidence of inappropriate behaviour with students', the Lewisville Independent School District said in a statement Thursday. An email sent to parents at the time said the investigation did determine McGann's classroom management and professional judgment to be below district expectations. He resigned in May of that year, the school district said. Sierra Marcum, whose 12-year-old son had McGann as his fourth-grade teacher at Donald Elementary three years ago, said her family's experience with McGann as a teacher was unsettling. 'He was very disinterested, cold, wouldn't make eye contact. He wasn't very good at responding if you had questions,' Marcum recalled of her son's former teacher. Still, Marcum was shocked when her son told her on Wednesday night he'd seen an article reporting that his former teacher had been charged with double homicide. 'It was shocking to see something so violent, horrific and grisly,' Marcum said. Days long search finally ends Earlier this week, police in Arkansas released a photo and a sketch of a man seen on Saturday in the Devil's Den State Park and said they wanted to question him in connection with the Brinks' deaths. They also asked the public to watch out for a white man of medium build who may have driven a Mazda near the park, and to send them any photos or videos from the area that day. Officials got an 'overwhelming' amount of tips from the public, they said on Wednesday. 'A lot of the video footage that we received was instrumental in helping us identify this particular subject,' Rhoads said. Last Saturday afternoon, 'Washington County received a call from the visitor centre', police audio captured by says. 'Two children are there. They advised that their parents were assaulted. One was possibly stabbed. The parents are missing.' The Brinks had recently moved from another state to Prairie Grove, a small town in northwest Arkansas near the Oklahoma border, according to police. Their family has asked for privacy. 'Clinton and Cristen died heroes, protecting their little girls and they deserve justice,' relatives said in a Monday statement. 'They will forever live on in all of our hearts.' Authorities believe Clinton David Brink was attacked first, while Cristen Amanda Brink took the girls to safety and returned to help her husband. The suspect was injured in the attacks, resulting in blood loss, which allowed investigators to establish a DNA profile that ultimately led to his arrest, Hagar said. 'Everyone speculates … that there was a lot of thought that went into this to conceal his identity,' Rhoads said about McGann. 'But … he was also very sloppy.' The killings happened in a part of 2500-acre Devil's Den State Park with thick vegetation and no cell phone service, police said. The park is known for its rugged natural scenery, with waterfalls, caves and rock formations. The couple's bodies were found on the Devil's Den Trail, audio from first responders indicates. The 1.5-mile loop of 'moderate' difficulty is one of 11 trails in the park, and its trailhead is close to the park's visitor centre. While searching the trail, first responders heard shouts, scanner audio indicates, though it's not clear from whom. 'I hear yells calling for help. We're walking down,' a first responder said. 'Try to relay to the office that we found the victims down here,' a first responder says. 'They're on the lower Devil's Den Trail. … I think I see you right there. I've got two bodies down here.'
Perth Now
6 days ago
- Perth Now
Killer's shocking lies before triple murder
A taekwondo instructor who confessed to a shocking triple murder in Sydney's west has confirmed his pleas as he gets set to learn his fate. Kwang Kyung Yoo, 51, earlier this year pleaded guilty to murdering Min Cho, 41, and a seven-year-old child at Yoo's North Parramatta taekwondo studio as well as Ms Cho's husband, Steven Cho, 39, at his Baulkham Hills home in February last year. A statement of agreed facts tendered to the court do not state Yoo's motivation for the horrific murders. However, they do reveal that in the lead-up he lied to his wife that he was being given a BMW as a work car and instead took Ms Cho's BMW X5 after killing her. The court documents also reveal he was obsessed with wealth and had told lies about his academic credentials and having competed at the Olympics. Yoo confirmed his three guilty pleas in the NSW Supreme Court in Sydney on Friday. 'Yes,' Yoo said, appearing from prison via videolink, as he confirmed he would plea guilty to each murder. Yoo hung his head during Friday's mention in the Supreme Court. Kwang Kyung Yoo murdered three people. Credit: Supplied Yoo falsely claimed he competed at the Olympics. Facebook Credit: Supplied Yoo ran the Lion's Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy at North Parramatta and was known to his students as 'Master Lion' at the time of the horrific triple murder. According to court documents, in January last year, he lied to his wife when he told her that a primary school – where he had a part-time job – was giving him a BMW as a work car. In the 11 days leading up to the horrific murders, Yoo was captured on CCTV driving into the complex where the Cho family lived in his grey Toyota Camry on five occasions The court was told that about 6.22pm on February 19, after the other parents and students had left his taekwondo studio, Yoo strangled Ms Cho in a storeroom before dragging her body into the office. Later that evening, he was captured on CCTV taking Ms Cho's car keys before he later called his wife to say his new BMW had arrived. 'The car has arrived,' he told her during a brief phone call. Murder victims Min Cho and her husband Steven. Supplied Credit: Supplied He then killed the seven-year-old boy in the storeroom by strangling him. At 8.48pm, he drove Ms Cho's BMW X5 away from the scene to her Baulkham Hills townhouse where he broke in. Mr Cho returned home and was stabbed to death by Yoo, with blows to the head, neck and chest. Mr Cho stabbed Yoo in self-defence but was killed in the altercation. Yoo returned to his studio and called his wife, saying: 'I've been stabbed with a knife.' He drove to Westmead Hospital and was treated for a collapsed lung and stab wounds. He claimed to police that he had been stabbed by three people in the carpark of a North Parramatta Woolworths; however, officers quickly established that was a lie after viewing CCTV footage. Police searched Ms Cho's BMW, which Yoo had driven to hospital, and found traces of blood inside. Mr Cho's body was discovered the next day when friends became concerned and went to the couple's home. Police then went to the Lion's Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy, where they noticed blood on the front steps before the bodies of Ms Cho and the boy were found inside. Yoo's taekwondo studio where two bodies were discovered. NewsWire / Gaye Gerard Credit: News Corp Australia Police outside the Chos' Baulkham Hills home. NewsWire/Gaye Gerard. Credit: News Corp Australia 'During the investigation, police obtained evidence that suggested that the offender (Yoo) had interests in luxury items, social status and wealth,' the court documents state. Police found evidence of Yoo inspecting properties and falsely telling agents that he was acting on behalf of his wealthy employer or his parents who had a budget of up to $50m. He showed the mother of one of his students a picture that he falsely claimed was taken from his home with Harbour Bridge views. He had further lied about owning property in Sydney's eastern suburbs and luxury cars and that he holidayed in New York and California. Yoo also told people, including his wife and sister, that he had a master's degree and PHD from Macquarie University and The University of Sydney. However, both institutions had no record of him. He was also found to have lied about competing in taekwondo at the 2000 Olympics. Yoo will appear in court again next week when a date will be set for sentence proceedings.
ABC News
6 days ago
- ABC News
New NAAJA chief intends to rebuild NT Aboriginal legal service after years of instability
Lobbying against harsher crime laws, boosting staff morale and restoring stability and trust are among the priorities the new head of one of Australia's biggest Aboriginal legal service providers says he plans to tackle in his new role. The North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) announced Ben Grimes as its new chief executive in July, following a period of deep internal instability. In the past two years, NAAJA has gone through six acting chief executives and been the subject of a string of highly publicised controversies. They include a costly Federal Court case brought by its former chief executive, resignations of senior leadership and the suspension of core legal services in Alice Springs. The organisation has said it hopes Mr Grimes's appointment will mark a step towards stable leadership. In his first interview since being named chief executive, Mr Grimes — who is the former chief executive of the Aboriginal Resource and Development Services Aboriginal Corporation — said before accepting the role, he questioned how much the organisation had improved, but believed it had now turned a corner. "I've been pleasantly surprised at just how much good work has gone on up to this point," he said. "We've got a new board, a new constitution, so a lot of those issues which were raised in the past have actually largely been addressed. So now we're on the rebound and rebuilding phase, which is really exciting to be part of." At the height of the organisation's staffing woes in 2024, just three lawyers were left to service Alice Springs, leaving vulnerable people without options for legal representation. Mr Grimes said speaking directly with staff on the ground in Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine and Tennant Creek to understand their needs and concerns would be a priority when he officially started the role in September. He said proving adequate training and boosting the number of local and Aboriginal lawyers were among the steps he planned to take to improve workforce consistency. Mr Grimes conceded that some factors contributing to NAAJA staff burnout were beyond the organisation's control and were unlikely to ease anytime soon. In recent months, the Darwin Local Court has struggled to manage the high number of cases being listed per day, leading to a growing backlog of cases. "The incredible court lists and the huge number of people being processed through … there's not much we can do, our lawyers just have to respond," he said. Having worked at NAAJA as a junior lawyer more than a decade ago, Mr Grimes said the explosion of prisoner numbers in recent years and the growing proportion of people on remand was a sign of a "system at crisis point". "Fifty per cent of people in prison haven't been found guilty … it's a sign of how out-of-kilter our legal system is at the moment," he said. Mr Grimes said government funding commitments and an emphasis on policing and corrections needed to be matched with additional resources for mental health services, courts and lawyers. He said he wanted NAAJA to support and invest in Aboriginal community-led solutions to justice, including community courts and restorative sentencing, particularly for young offenders. "If we can nip it in the bud when people are 11, 12, 13, 14 that's going to save us so much down the track," he said. He said NAAJA would be lobbying the NT government to shift its focus on policing and prisons following a series of changes aimed at increasing police powers, restricting bail and introducing tougher penalties for youth offenders. "What they're doing at the moment is not working, it's costing us a ridiculous amount of money and it's actually just setting us up for failure in future and there are much better ways to do things," he said. Mr Grimes is also a linguist and a senior manager at the Aboriginal Interpreter Service, where he played a key role in shaping the existing court duty interpreting system used across the NT. He said access to interpreters for Indigenous defendants was an area he wanted to see improved in NT courts. "We can unfortunately point to too many examples of people who have ended up in prison and it's later turned out they're innocent and the issue was lack of interpreting," he said. Mr Grimes said understanding court processes and outcomes was an essential and often overlooked part of achieving justice for victims and their families, as well as offenders, and interpreters could assist. "Does the victim feel like their voice is heard? Did the victim feel like they actually got to tell their story in their first language?", he said. "If people don't know why a judge is making their decision, it's hard for anyone to think about that and adjust their behaviour in future."
