The mystery of the disappearring bouling balls... Funny...

It's been two months that the bouling balls of Patrick Cazes disappeared mysteriously in front of his home in Belmont, a small village in the Gers, France.....

Until the man finally identifies the culprit using an infrared camera: a fox!!

"The first ball he took was on February 29. In total, in two months, he stole 38 balls. I wish I knew what he does with these balls," says, taken aback, this 49 years old carpenter and hunter.

"A fox interested in bowling balls, I had never seen that before. Even if they are rusty, he takes them anyway. At first it made ​​me laugh not at all, because he was taking brand news competition balls, "said Patrick Cazes.

The night video recording he posted on Youtube shows a wary fox approaching cautiously to the balls, take them gently between his teeth and get away happily in the dark. According to the video, he says he is a "pretty young female, a male would be beefier".

Mr Cazes is surprised that the fox was interested only at the balls whereas he have at home dozens of hens, chickens and ducks, a few meters away from where the balls stands. "The chickens and ducks, he do not shows interests any more than that," he said, amused.

The neighbors surrounding the village offered to him their old oxidized balls with which he feeds the vice of the animal. To better identify the thief, he also placed near the balls "a jack, then a tennis ball, but without any success." Thursday, he left on his bowling pitch a ball weighing 1.6 kg, about twice a traditional ball, to see what the thief was able to do.

Source (In French)

English translation by myself.

So you think a fox can pick up a BOWLING BALL with its snout ?

You've either never seen a bowling ball or a fox.

I guess these are "Bouling" balls, used for BOULES a french game where you throw balls and try landing close to a certain small ball.

Yeah, those are definitely not Bowling Balls. Not even the Bowling Balls designed for Children are that small and lightweight so a Fox can pick them up and carry away.

Has to be something else. Maybe Boccia balls?
But it's funny and it makes you wonder what the Fox does with them. Maybe they have a tournament of some sort and needed new balls

reply to post by ShadowAngel85

reply to post by H1ght3chHippie

Well, thanks for the correction, you're right, "bouling balls" seems better! however, i haven't found the exact English translation for "pétanque" which is the exact word used in French for this game...

A different kind of bowling, popular in Mediterranean. Smaller balls than those used for "bowling" in America. These balls easily fit man's hand and so a fox can take it into its mouth.

reply to post by elevenaugust


Ah you are correct, it's called Petanque. I remember learning about it in a French lesson in school, but that's been a while.

I'm not sure if bouling ball is an existing word though lol .. I just assume it is because the game is called Boules. And btw isn't Boccia the Spanish word for the same game, or are there different rules for this praticular game ?

I played it a long time ago, and I remember it were plastic balls filled with water. We called it Boccia in German.

But on topic: I think there's a video similar to that where the fox steals golf balls .. lemme find it .. there you go: