Screengrab of video showing mouse tidying up shed. The mouse is seen circled in red.
Credit: ITV News
Remy from Ratatouille made us believe that mice can help us cook, but now it seems they can help clean as well. Wildlife photographer Rodney Holbrook shared that a mouse had been tidying his shed for two months.
The 75-year-old 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 to find out what was happening and captured footage reminiscent of the 2007 animated movie Ratatouille, where a rodent secretly cooks at a restaurant.
Speaking to the BBC, Holbrook said, "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.”
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.
"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", Holbrook added.
A similar rodent appearance took place in 2019 when viral video showed a mouse “stockpiling” items in a Steve Mckear’s shed near Bristol.
He told BBC that 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.