Man's new best friend? Mouse caught on camera tidying shed every night

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.