Photographer who noticed his items were mysteriously moving around discovered an industrious rodent was organising his workbench
A mouse has been filmed secretly tidying up a man’s shed almost every night for two months.
Wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook noticed that objects he left out of place were being mysteriously put back where they belonged overnight.
Holbrook, from Builth Wells in Powys, Wales, set up a night vision camera on his workbench to find out what was happening, and captured footage reminiscent of the 2007 animated movie Ratatouille, where a rodent secretly cooks at a restaurant.
Holbrook, 75, told the BBC: “It has been going on for months. I call him Welsh Tidy Mouse. At first, I noticed that some food that I was putting out for the birds was ending up in some old shoes I was storing in the shed, so I set up a camera.”
Rodney Holbrook in his shed. Rodney Holbrook was baffled by what was happening, so he set up a camera. Photograph: Animal News Agency Night vision footage showed the seemingly conscientious rodent gathering clothes pegs, corks, nuts and bolts, and placing them in a tray on Holbrook’s workbench.
Holbrook even experimented with leaving out different objects to see if the mouse could lift them, but the creature was undeterred and was even seen carrying cable ties to the pot.
“I couldn’t believe it when I saw that the mouse was tidying up,” Holbrook said.
“He moved all sorts of things into the box, bits of plastic, nuts and bolts. I don’t bother to tidy up now, as I know he will see to it. I leave things out of the box and they put it back in its place by the morning. Ninety-nine times out of 100 the mouse will tidy up throughout the night.”
A similar incident occurred in 2019, when a viral video showed a mouse “stockpiling” items in a man’s shed near Bristol.
Steve Mckears told reporters he thought he “was going mad” when screws and metal objects kept reappearing in a box containing bird feed. He set up a camera and captured footage of the mouse putting screws and other metal objects in the container."
Date: January 08, 2024 at 12:05:11 From: shatterbrain, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
The only kind of mice I have roaming around at nite, are the ones that chew up the hell out of my electrical wiring system. No wonder everything STOPPED working !
Date: January 08, 2024 at 12:35:36 From: shadow, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
Sorry to hear that, shatterbrain! I've heard so many similar stories of damage to wiring by their tiny teeth...some of which have been reported by neighbors whose cars mice have crawled up into during our "winters" here, and effectively destroyed the electricals... ;(
Date: January 08, 2024 at 13:51:05 From: Redhart, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
yeah, we had some get into a car and do $1500 damage to the wiring harness!
Our insurance paid for most of it, but DAYUM mice!
The funniest thing is my insurance company (i guess by law) had to send me a letter after the paid the claim. They have to disclose if they are going to sue the damaging party to recover their cost on damages.
"Our company has decided to not sue the mice that caused the damage"
They did get together a class action suit with some other insurance companies to go after car manufacturers. Apparently, some manufacturers (including the one that built our car) switched to using soy-based lubricant in the insulation around the wiring.
Date: January 08, 2024 at 09:01:54 From: Redhart, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
I have mice in my shed, but so far--they have not cleaned up after themselves.
The closest I've had is a mouse that got into a stored box of christmas ornaments that were in the shed. He made a nest of broken glass ball ornaments, then chewed off the face of a ceramic angel tree topper.
We nick named him "satan mouse" (although we never actually saw him do the deed).
Date: January 08, 2024 at 10:25:21 From: shadow, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
Thanks for putting the video in the post, Red...
Years ago back in Chicago I lived w/my partner in an apartment that had one mouse...I was always amazed it was only one, knowing how they breed...but it lived underneath the lower kitchen cabinets. Sometimes less- than-precise contractors will just leave a space between the baseboard and where the cabinet foundations begin, if they measured poorly or for whatever reason, knowing it wouldn't be casually seen... Our dog Opal's dish sat tucked just underneath the space where the cabinet foundation didn't quite meet the baseboard...
So every day we'd watch this tiny mouse arm reach down into the dish, grab a chunk of kibble and pull it back in...you could actually hear him munching it...then go for another, one by one, until it was sated...lol... At first of course we were worried there'd be more! ;) But only he (or she) was all there ever was...
Opal came to develop some aging issues making wet food better for her, so we wondered how this might be for the mouse... Only thing that happened was at its first go...reaching down into the dish for a kibble chunk only to find much wetter, sloppier chunks...it pulled up its little arm so fast, and it didn't come out again for awhile...lol... But soon enough the shock wore off, and it was back to its regular feeding pattern, just took a little longer each time for that arm to reach back down...lol... Just that now, we couldn't hear it chewing anymore... ;)
Date: January 08, 2024 at 12:06:58 From: Redhart, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
funny story :)
Haven't seen any in the house. They seemed to have laid claim to our back shed, is all (occasionally they find their way into a car and have to be dealt with promptly).
Date: January 08, 2024 at 12:37:45 From: etc., [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
Once I saw baby mice at my front tire. They quickly scurried up inside dark crevices in my van. My kids planned to borrow my van to go to Disneyland. I told them about the mice, but it didn’t phase them and they headed out. I’d like to imagine that when parking in the Disney lot, these little guys were ecstatic and ventured out into the wilds of the park singing in high pitched voices. (Surprisingly, I never had mice in my van again ;)
Date: January 08, 2024 at 15:30:24 From: etc., [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
I wondered the same thing when a rabbit hitched a ride inside my engine and hopped out at a shopping center 50 miles away from home! I told him “you aren’t in Kansas (Tehachapi) anymore, boy! If you want a hitch back home it’s up to you to hop on.” I’m thinking he chose the big wide world journey. Never saw him again! ☺️
Date: January 08, 2024 at 17:17:39 From: Redhart, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
LOL yes! I had that happen to. I watched a bobcat chase a couple of rabbits that disapeared as they went under my car. The bobcat left, but I heard the rabbits thumping around at the bottom of the engine compartment. I opened the hood..there they were...hiding from the bobcat.
I reached down and pet one along the back. He freaked~! Both departed the car and ran!
I told hubby, "Great..we have a $20K mobile rabbit hutch now".
When you live in the wildlands.. you have to sometimes negotiate with the neighbors. lol
Responses:
None
44007
Date: January 08, 2024 at 12:49:23 From: shadow, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
LOL etc.!!! I'd say that's as good an explanation as any, and a more fun one than most... ;D
That you never knew of them again having anything to do with your van, that's the important part...lol... ;D
Date: January 08, 2024 at 13:36:51 From: etc., [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
That van is 23 years old and still ticking. Does it have stories!!!! 😂🤣😂
Responses:
None
44005
Date: January 08, 2024 at 12:37:03 From: shadow, [DNS_Address] Subject: Re: Mouse secretly filmed tidying man's shed every night
Yep, damage to car wiring can be devastating...!
And yeah...if we'd ever seen more than the one, or had seen infiltration into food that was always kept in upper cabinets, steps would've had to be taken... ;)