A CANINE crook has been caught fly tipping – but it was just following orders.
Police in Sicily are searching for a dog owner who trained their pet to take rubbish to an illegal dump.
Footage shows the four-legged accomplice wandering down a road with a full bin bag in its mouth.
The well-trained pooch abandons the trash, before returning to its owner.
It was caught fly tipping in San Giorgio, Catania, on two consecutive nights.
The video was shared online by the city of Catania, captioned: “Ingenuity can never become an alibi for incivility.”
Catania officials said the owner had trained their pet so they could fly tip while staying out of shot of CCTV.
They wrote: “This is a scene which leaves little room for doubt: the animal has been trained to allow the owner to avoid being filmed while it abandoned rubbish illegally.”
There was also concern for the complicit canine.
Officials said: “This behaviour is cunning but doubly wrong because, apart from dirtying the city and violating the rules, it exploits an unwitting four-legged friend.
“Respect for urban etiquette and the environment is everyone’s duty.”
Fly tipping has become a serious issue in the city since changes to waste collection.
Door-to-door services now pick up food, paper, plastic, glass and metal on different days – cops said some locals think this is too much hassle, and instead pile their rubbish in illegal dumps.
The pooch is not the only animal involved in crime in recent weeks.
In Turkey, a donkey aided the escape of a suspected jewellery thief earlier this month.
Bizarre footage showed a suspect smashing their way in to a shop with a forklift – before escaping on a donkey with their swag.
After forcing their way into the building with a forklift, the suspect broke a glass cabinet, grabbed the gold and made a run for it.
But the robber did not have a getaway driver waiting in a flash car.
Instead, they fled on a donkey – hilarious video shows the animal accomplice taking the robber away as fast as its four legs can carry them.
In December, a criminal capuchin was “arrested” after terrorising a village in eastern Brazil.
The burglar monkey was seen wielding a huge knife and stealing a coffee pot before it was captured by military police.
It was accused of biting locals and rummaging through their kitchens in a crime spree that lasted days.
