CLINTON, S.C. (CNN)--Dogs are often guilty of just being adorable and messy. But one canine in South Carolina got involved in a real crime, and he was caught red-pawed on surveillance camera committing the dastardly deed.
Cato the husky likes laying around the house. But when he was out on a walk recently, he escaped his leash and just kept going.
"When he runs I just have to let him go until someone catches him,” his owner Holly Darden said.
Not long after Cato’s escape, a Dollar General store was robbed.
"We didn't know it happened because he just snuck in with the customers ”store manager Anastasia Polson said, who added it happened twice within a few minutes.
And what was bizarre was what was being taken.
"Pig ears, beef bones, dog food off the shelf, the little packets of dog treats."
Polson knew their surveillance cameras were rolling so, she took a look and it turned out they had a shoplifting dog.
Not just any dog. On the video you see Cato, the husky, walk up. The door shuts in his face. But he's no dummy. He waits for the opportunity. In he goes.
And out he comes with the goods.
"This is pretty funny,” Polson laughed.
In less than a minute, he's back and once again he's in. This time for just over three minutes, as quick as he got in, he was gone again.
"We had to lock the door to keep him from coming back in,” Polson said.
Cato's crime spree was quick lived, but the merchandise he took had to be tracked down.
"Taking them out to the car wash over here back behind the grass,” Polson said, “digging holes and burying them.”
Cato has yet to confess but this isn't his first theft.
"Yes, I don't know about the stealing. But he's gotten into Ingles. He's gotten into BI-LO. He goes to Pizza Hut. And he goes up to Yo Cup which is downtown too,” his mom said.
"Look at him he's fat. Yes! I feed him. There's food in there. There's treats in there,” Darden said as she ruled out hunger as the motivation.
The Clinton County Police department even filed a police report on the incident -- just for fun.
