A red-faced mum went viral this week with an apology she was forced to make after her “mischievous” cat brazenly stole someone’s cooked beef joint.
Meanwhile, her neighbour had also taken to social media to report that his tea had gone missing.
Can you tell where this is going?
Haydn Lawson – 20, from Colne in Lancashire – captured the attention of the community when she shared an apology to anyone who had “just had their tea pinched” in a local Facebook group earlier this week, and it didn’t take long before other eagle-eyed social media users spotted another Colne resident, Ryan, share a post claiming his beef dinner had gone missing after leaving his window open and questioned who would steal it.
Haydn had spotted her five-year-old cat Eclipse with what at first appeared to be a dead animal, but upon taking a closer look, found it was actually a “nicely cooked piece of brisket”.
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The embarrassed full-time mum said she’s “never known” anything like her cat’s greed and suspects Eclipse had a whiff of a neighbour’s dinner and seized the opportunity to take it home, leaving Haydn to track down the stolen dinner’s rightful owner.
She said she’d even buy them a new joint if she’s successful in finding the hungry victim.
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“I came into my bedroom where I was greeted by Eclipse just sitting there on my bed eating this hunk of meat.” Haydn said.
“I just laughed at first and was in shock. I thought ‘what animal am I looking at here?’, [as] she brings home rats, pigeons, crows, mice [and] she’ll bring home bits of rubbish that she’s found, [so] my first thing was to shout at her and say ‘Eclipse, what are you doing?’ just to get her away from whatever it was.”
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Haydn still has her doubts about who the beef joint belonged to though.
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She continued: “[Ryan] lives at the other side of town. He told me where his street was and there was no chance my cat got there and back with meat in her mouth, and also, she wouldn’t have been able to get there without getting lost on the way back as it’s easily a mile or so away.
“He told me his street name and straight away I knew there was no way on this earth that my cat would have walked so far there, grabbed the meat and then walked so far back with the meat in her mouth.
“There’s so many busy roads and stuff, there wasn’t a chance”.
Despite the questioning over who’s tea had actually been stolen, the hilarious incident has still gone on to cheer up plenty of people across the region and beyond, with a picture showing the two posts side by side receiving thousands of interactions on social media, including more than 4,000 on one Instagram page.
“Looking at the comments, I thought it was absolutely hilarious,” Haydn continued.
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“I was just sat giggling at the pure thought of her sneaking into someone’s house and grabbing this meat. I had so many comments on it saying ‘thank you so much for sharing this – you’ve brightened my day’.
“I put a comment on the post and said ‘right, am I going to have to invest in a cat collar camera?’
“I don’t know whose beef joint it was – all I know is that she was on my bed eating it. I was well embarrassed. If I was to really truly find the person, I’ll buy them a new joint of beef.
“This cat, honestly – she’ll be the death of me.”
Although Haydn has been unable to actually track down the owner of the beef joint, she explained that there was a comment saying ‘God knows why you would have left your meat outside anyway to cool’, with a reply to it saying ‘I only turned my back for two minutes to plate up the roasties and it was gone’.
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“Now that to me sounds a hell of a lot more likely that this is their meat than [Ryan’s].” Haydn concluded.
This really is some proper internet beef.
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Ruben Amorim reportedly paying for staff members flights ahead of the Europa League final
Danny Jones
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim is reportedly covering the cost of flights for several staff members and families around the club ahead of this month’s Europa League final.
Taking place on Wednesday, 21 May, Man United take on Spurs in UEFA’s second-string continental competition, giving the Red Devils a chance at lifting the trophy for the second time and, more importantly, getting into the Champions League next year.
Not only is this European final in a United manager’s maiden season a feat only previously achieved by Jose Mourinho, who also won it in his inaugural campaign at the club, but it also happens to be the first of Amorim’s career full stop.
With that in mind, the Portuguese head coach is hoping to rope in as much positivity and support as possible, so despite cost-cutting measures around the club over the last 18 months, Amorim is reaching into his own pocket to pay for staff and some of the family members to be at the final.
Ruben Amorim has paid for 30 of his Man United backroom staff to take their families to next week's Europa League final in Bilbao, Spain, after being told by the club that his coaches, physios and support team would have to pay for their own tickets, sources have told ESPN. pic.twitter.com/rC2GkGsvZb
Now this is the kind of leadership supporters like to see.
According to ESPN sports writer Mark Ogden, at least 30 members of his backroom staff have seen their travel to the final paid for after the club said they would not be covering the increasingly inflated prices, with flights to Bilbao unsurprisingly skyrocketing.
The Athletic‘s Mark Critchley has gone on to detail that “coaches, physios and support staff would instead be able to purchase up to two tickets”, while only two complimentary family tickets have been granted per player.
If you’re wondering why fans continue to make his name echo around the Theatre of Dreams in spite of poor performances, gestures like this should tell you why.
The 40-year-old’s debut Premier League season might be one to forget, with his team set to record United’s worst-ever finish, but a final at the first time of asking, even with a squad that’s visibly struggling to adjust to yet another period of overhaul, is still an achievement – especially a European one.
In addition to admitting that he’s been left “embarrassed” by the league form, he says one of his biggest fears is that everyone around Old Trafford is “losing the feeling of being a massive club”, both inside and out. Obviously, he’s hoping that potentially winning another European title will help fix that.
United played out a forgettable 2-0 loss to West Ham this past weekend in what should have felt like a bit of a free hit, but ultimately resulted in starting centre-back Leny Yoro picking up another injury and key players exerting a lot more energy than many would have hoped.
Most fans were expecting to see the likes of Bruno Fernandes, Harry Maguire, Amad Diallo and so on rested to keep that balance between sharpness and recovery, but many first-choice players played far more minutes than was arguably necessary.
Whether or not this is all in line with his thinking, we’ll have to wait and see when the Reds rock up to the Basque Country a week from now
Announced on Tuesday, 13 May, ITV confirmed that work on the first-ever Coronation Street and Emmerdale collaboration is now underway.
The flagship serial franchises both have huge nationwide followings in their own right, attracting more than 8 million viewers every week.
Moreover, with both Manc’s much-loved Corrie and its Yorkshire counterpart having faced financial struggles in recent months, this announcement couldn’t have come at a better time.
Writing in an official joint press release, the two shows revealed they will “join forces in an unprecedented, one-off special episode to launch the broadcaster’s new power hour of soap, which begins on ITV1 and STV in January 2026.”
The ‘power hour’ is part of the channel’s plans to readjust its approach to its regular programming laid out earlier this year, with this serving as an eye-catching way to promote the new schedule.
Put it this way, provided they keep the crossovers up North and avoid you know where, this is the kind of thing we can get behind…
Corrie characters reacting to the mere thought of heading to London 🤝 Manc parents whenever one of their kids mentions leaving 0161. 😂
The statement goes on to read: “The distinctive worlds of Emmerdale and Coronation Street will merge for one night only in a ‘mash-up’ of our two favourite communities.”
ITV believe they have come up with an “ingenious way of linking the two universes” before having them return to Greater Manchester and the Dales, respectively.
The episode will be a self-contained one-off special, but one that sees them canonically grounded in the same entertainment world forever and, you never know, if the idea is a hit then it could be the first of many to come.
As if that wasn’t enough, to make the prospect even more interesting, the producers are inviting members of the audience to choose which two characters they would like to meet and interact with in the scene – keep your eyes peeled on their social media for more information.
Coming in January 2026 (specific release date yet to be confirmed), this is not one you want to miss.
We’re also glad to see the pair of long-standing soaps and institutions of British telly have got off to a strong start this year, raking in 124 million streams on ITVX with each episode now available on the streaming platform ahead of each night’s episode.
You can expect a big viewer spike when this one goes out, that’s for sure.