A CHEEKY pooch was caught “shoplifting” at the Magic of Life Butterfly House in Cwmrheidol, near Aberystwyth.

On a hot afternoon over last weekend, a 10-year-old Lakeland Terrier called Lord Percy trotted confidently into the gift shop.

Ignoring the beetles, t-shirts and butterfly magnets, he seized a rubber dinosaur without a break in his stride and ran out of the door.

The manager, Neil Gale, went running after him calling out “theiving monkey” but by then the terrier was halfway up the path making for the field.

Trying to retrieve the toy became a hopeless game.

In the end, Percy’s owner decided she better buy the toy dinosaur as clearly Percy thought it was rightfully his.

Mr Gale said: “Dogs are always welcome in the butterfly house but we have a ‘one snap (at the butterflies) and they’re out rule’ although we’ve only enforced this once with a Golden Labrador.

"Obviously Percy will now be going around thinking that crime pays but we’ll be ready and waiting for him if he returns.”

See this week’s south editions for the full story, in shops and online on Wednesday