Police were called in when cuddly toys started to disappear from cemetery graves. But it turns out the culprit could be a mishievous moggie called Jess.

For the past few months, ginger tabby Jess has brought home up to three teddies a night, much to the confusion of owner Samantha Wilks.

She believed he had been stealing the toys from a neighbour's garden near her home in Stockton, Teesside.

But when Mrs Wilks, 32, discovered toys and ornaments from plots at nearby Oxbridge Cemetery had gone missing, she soon became suspicious of her pet.

Mrs Wilks is now appealing to anyone whose teddies have gone missing from children's graves to contact her because her house is filled with about 40 of them.

She said: "A few weeks ago, my husband saw Jess walking along the fence with something in his mouth and thought it was a rat. We then we realised it was a teddy bear.

"He's coming back every night with two to three and I've got a bag of about 40 now.

"I didn't have a clue where they were coming from, and thought he must be pinching them out of a neighbour's garden.

"The majority of them are dirty and one rabbit toy had something around its neck as if it had been attached to something. Others had names on them too."

After reading a newspaper report about vandals targeting baby's graves at the cemetery, Mrs Wilks realised that 18-month-old Jess may have been stealing the toys.

She said: "We live really near the cemetery. There's not a lot I can do about it really. I can't keep him indoors."