Coober Pedy’s shoe-loving pooch is an opal miner by day, footwear thief by night

Coober Pedy is known as the opal capital of the world, and for its quirky characters — both animal and human.

So it should come as no surprise to learn that over the past few months, shoes have been disappearing into the night from porches and dugouts littered across the famous landscape.

The question is not who, but rather what, has been stealing them — and it happens to have four paws and a stealthy gait.

“Coober has been night-shifting,” owner Genevieve Smith, 62, said of the one-year-old pooch, who has been collecting things from around the neighbourhood.