An estranged 59-year-old Swedish man has been arrested following his exploitation of his former wife’s fear of mice to extract a cruel and bizarre revenge which involved inserting some 19 of the rodents through the woman’s letterbox last weekend.
“She was scared out of her wits and is now being cared for in hospital,” said Stockholm police officer Lars Lisberger. The jilted ex-lover has been arrested under suspicion of making unlawful threats to the woman and also under charges relating to animal welfare offences.
Musophobia is defined as ‘an unreasonable and disproportionate fear of rats and mice’ and knowing his former partner’s aversion to the rodents the man travelled to her Marsta apartment in the north of Stockholm in the early hours of the morning accompanied by a mouse-filled paper bag
The rampant murines quickly explored the premises and woke the 37-year-old woman from her slumber; where she was still lucid enough to contact local police at around 7.30am. The man was arrested shortly after and was taken for questioning.
No charges so far have been laid down against the mice though all nineteen were successfully captured at the apartment and remain in police custody awaiting a decision on their future from the county veterinarian. The Local reports that the man has requested his mice are returned to him unharmed.
“He has treated both the mice and his ex-wife badly, so I do not think that he should be given any of them. But we shall have to wait and see what the authorities decide,” said Lisberger.