Man Sets Up Hidden Camera and Finally Catches His Dog Red-Handed: 'Guilty'

A rescue dog has been caught red-pawed after her owner installed a hidden camera to investigate strange goings-on in his bedroom.

Edi Liang, who runs the YouTube channel Mr Chops, doesn't know much about his 9-year-old dog Mochi's early life back in his native Portugal.

"She was discovered abandoned, stuck in a fence," he told Newsweek.

Despite enduring a difficult start to life, Mochi has found happiness living alongside Liang and even upped sticks with him when he moved over to Germany for work.

Now her days are spent enjoying the good life. "Her favorite pastimes include laying in the warmth of the sun, running and belly rubs," Liang said.

It all sounds pretty blissful, but recently Liang had begun to notice something strange was happening every time he left his apartment.

"I work from home but I'm occasionally required to step out for meetings," Liang said. In his absence, Mochi was getting up to no good.

Given how much he is usually around the place, Mochi would be forgiven for feeling a little lost without her human companion.

She wouldn't be the first canine to miss her owner either. In a 2011 study published in the scientific journal Applied Animal Behavior Science, researchers decided to investigate whether absence did, indeed, make the heart grow fonder between humans and their dog friends.

To test the theory, 12 dogs with no history of separation-related issues were filmed after being left alone in the home and also when their owners returned.

Over the course of three experiments, the dogs were left alone for 30 minutes, two hours and four hours. Tellingly, the researchers found that the dogs greeted their owners with significantly more intensity after two hours than they did after just 30 minutes of being alone.

Mochi was doing something slightly different to those dogs when her owner went out though. As Liang explained: "Recently I had begun noticing peculiar evidence on my bed—an indentation with tiny paw prints."

He had a pretty good idea of what was going on but decided to investigate nonetheless. "I decided to set up a camera on a tripod strategically positioned in the corner of my room. The camera would capture Mochi's activities while I was away," he said.

What he saw proved something of a surprise.

Liang shared the resulting video to the MrChops YouTube and TikTok channels, explaining that he had begun to notice a strange indentation of his pillows. "I think I know who is guilty," he wrote on the clip.

The footage confirmed what he had already strongly suspected: Mochi was taking naps on her owner's bed any time he went out.

The video provides a step-by-step account of how Mochi operated. He usually starts out sleeping in his own bed, before gradually getting up and enjoying a nice stretch. Mochi then goes outside the bedroom to check Liang is gone.

Once she has the all-clear, it's "go time" with Mochi jumping onto the bed before sniffing around. "Maybe the human scent comforts her?" Liang theorized. Given how dogs have been shown to miss their human friends, it's not entirely impossible.

After sniffing about for a few minutes, Mochi heads straight for one of her owner's pillows, before curling up while positioning herself in a way that ensures she still has a great view of the doorway.

Mochi waits for a few moments, double-checking that the coast is clear, before "plopping" herself down on the pillow for a well-earned rest.

While she clearly enjoys the naps, Mochi is careful to be ready for her owner's return. When he does eventually come back, Liang notes that "she immediately jumps off the bed and pretends like nothing ever happened."

Unfortunately, in this instance, Liang has caught her in the act. Despite the smoking gun evidence though, he wasn't entirely surprised. "Since the bed is so low, she can easily jump on it," Liang said.

In fact, they have made it into a bit of a joke. "Since my partner and I don't really mind it, we just question her why she did that for a laugh as she looks away 'guilty,'" he said.

Although he is happy for Mochi to continue jumping on the bed, there are no plans to make it a regular occurrence though and he's decided to start removing his sleeping pillows while he's out, just for hygiene purposes.

Even so, Liang is definitely able to see the funny side and is even a little touched that this appears to be the way in which Mochi likes to feel close to him when he is out.

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