What has broken into our locked food waste caddy?!

[BafflingBurglar]

We have had a food waste caddy outside for some years now and the contents have always stayed undisturbed in between collections. It has a handle which pushes from the back, up over the top and down the front of it to lock it securely. It is not easy to open and requires some strength and dexterity. For the first time ever 'something' has managed to unlock it, tip it over and eat the contents.

What is the 'something'?!

PS UK-based, no bears - AFAIK.

There's still the lock to be gusted off though @TheSpottedZebra , but I'm hearing from pps that nature has plenty of expert lockpickers! Too far from the sea sadly for seagulls but we do have the odd magpie - also very clever.

Now, now @Jins you're showing off!

I've probably pissed the foxes off as our waste food bin contains a lot of egg shells and tea bags!!

I also had a whiff of fish in my nostrils, @RedWingBoots - that can't be true, surely, @TheCanyon ?! No self-respecting cat would put in that much effort and for so little gain - sounds very fishy to me.

Unless the cat was desperate and that doesn't bear thinking about.

We're still not sure who actually owns the cat so who knows? Mine just goes and sits on her windowsill if it fancies a treat!

Rats can be pretty big, @Romeiswheretheheartis - certainly the one I saw hefting her belly and backside over our stone wall a while ago was, so much so that I did briefly wonder whether she might be pregnant <shrieks> before deciding to bury my head in the sand about that one.

I don't want to deny a hungry creature a meal, but I also don't want to encourage a rat population explosion. Like you and pps say, I should probably start putting the locked caddy up on the wheelie bin with a brick on it. Then I start worrying about a knocked off brick hitting some innocent hungry creature on the head...

Channelling Springwatch, I did look to see if I could see any droppings nearby @Cherrysoup to help me identify the guilty creature, but not a sausage.

Have you popped over from NetHuns, @Cleo22 because surely that wasn't a Mumsnet Chicken you were throwing away without making full and proper use of it?! Perhaps the badger was a Mumsnetter - sounds very resourceful, especially with that smooth, all-in-one motion.

All we found were a couple of clean chicken bones.
I hope you saw the error of your wasteful ways, brought them in, gave them a quick rinse under the tap and made soup and stock with them?

We've also had scared witless DC running in in the middle of the night, disturbed by loud grunting and heavy breathing underneath their bedroom windows - when we looked calmly, t'was not a passing pervert or people having sex in the hedge, but badgers and hedgehogs snuffling out slugs, snails and frogs!

Yes @bloodyunicorns and if they break the caddy, our mean local council will make us pay for a new one. They do even if the binmen break a bin, never mind badgers.

Did you see the badger do it, @cushioncovers ?

good question.

Ah, but are you definitely sure it was hedgehogs and not someone about to gasp about having a finger stuck up them ???

Sometimes denial is futile - caught red-pawed:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-45452432

Funnily enough, this was not something I discussed at the time with the DC. Maybe when they are older, @Glittertwins ? Anyway, a hedgehog's sex life is their own business but those prickles don't bear thinking about.

We saw a squirrel on top of ours desperately trying to get into it. When all the bins get mixed up on collection day we can tell which one is ours because of the teeth marks😂

We've got a trail camera, I wanted to see what wildlife we got in our back garden (I found a Mystery Poo on the lawn and suspected hedgehogs). Ours is a GardePro I think

It would be very easy to avoid doing everything I'm meant to be doing and fall down a 'badgers stealing from bins' rabbit hole. It seems that they are all at it:

Thank you for that @TheNoodlesIncident

When a pp mentioned squirrels @JesusSufferingFuck22 I found it hard to believe, but with your post too it looks like it is a thing!

I heard a noise and went outside and a badger was rooting through the food waste and the bin was knocked over and open so I'm pretty sure it was the badger that did it. 😁

Sounds pretty guilty to me, @cushioncovers !

Fox. We keep finding Fox pooh all around and worse still on top of our bins - it's disgusting. A fox Keeps digging up our flowers, this week we found a chicken drumstick buried in a plantpot! presumably by a fox wanting to come back and eat it later. Driving us nuts.

Sorry to hear about your flowers and the fox poop, @Oblomov22 - what a nuisance. A friend who lives just a couple of minutes walk from us has a badger digging up her flower beds. She's a very keen gardener but luckily for the badger she's very keen on wildlife too! Sounds like your fox is a Mumsnetter, making that chicken last!

My friend swears by spraying her bin with febreeze before she puts it out. The foxes have learned how to open the boxes, hers gets left untouched (so far).