Did A Dog Steal The World Cup?

by Read Listen Learn

When we talk about something or someone 'famous', we usually think of a person like Queen Elizabeth or Angelina Jolie, but sometimes an animal can become famous too. Here's the story of a dog called Pickles.

1966 was a big year for Pickles and for the country where he lived, England. It was a football World Cup year and the English national team thought the cup was soon going to be theirs......or was it? About four months before the competition, there was an exhibition of expensive, old stamps in a large building in London. To make it more interesting for more people, the World Cup was on show as well. On 20th March, a Sunday, someone stole the Cup. A strange crime because the stamps were worth millions of pounds and were, of course, easy to hide. The criminals could also sell them quickly on the black market. The Cup was heavy, worth only a few thousand pounds and very hard to sell, if anyone stole it. Someone called the police, saying they wanted fifteen thousand pounds to give the Cup back but, it was a hoax.

However, just a week later, a man and his dog were taking a walk somewhere in south-east London when the dog found the World Cup in a garden. The dog was black and white and called Pickles. His owner was called David Corbett. Of course, Pickles became a national hero and, when England won the World Cup that summer, for the first and probably the last time, the team invited Pickles and his owner David to a party. They also got a six thousand pound reward for finding the Cup.

Many people thought that David Corbett and Pickles knew more than they said about the stolen Cup and that 'finding' it was no accident. It was impossible to say and the police took no action against the man or the dog.

Pickles went on to play a lead part in a movie, ‘The Spy with the Cold Nose’. Not long after this, however, Pickles sadly died when he tried to run after a cat. His owner, David, went to stop him and pulled too hard on the lead. Poor Pickles choked to death.

He was buried in the back garden of his owner's house and with him, perhaps, went the truth about the stealing of the World Cup.