CHITA, July 19 (RIA Novosti) – Police in Russia's east Siberia have so far been outfoxed by a former circus worker who has stolen a vixen from his former employer and led them on a chase.
Gennady Pyatibratov, 24, is suspected of stealing the fox, called Eva, in revenge from being fired from his job as a traveling circus assistant for neglecting his duties, Zabaikalsky Region prosecutors said Friday.
The circus administration initially put the fox’s disappearance in late June down to an unlocked cage, the regional prosecutor's office said on its website.
But then a young local woman in the city of Chita, where the circus was performing, said she met Pyatibratov with a fox on a leash.
The man stopped for a chat and said he was going west to the city of Irkutsk, the report said.
Pyatibratov and Eva remain at large, but police in both Zabaikalsky and Irkutsk Region are on the lookout for the man and his vixen.
The runaway circus assistant could face theft charges, punishable with up to two years in prison. His motives for taking the animal remain unclear.
