'Cake bandit' opossum goes viral after wild culinary feat

A real estate agent in Omaha, Nebraska, recently had an unexpected encounter: a hungry opossum broke into her home and devoured her entire tiramisu chocolate mousse cake, which she had just purchased from Costco. This incident highlights the unpredictable nature of urban wildlife encounters and the challenges homeowners face.

Last Sunday, Kim Dungey went outside to find her chocolate cake, which she had left on the back porch, on the ground. Brown paw prints were left on the beige sofa, and a panting opossum was lying next to the cake. The opossum became an internet sensation for stealing and eating the entire Costco cake. The Nebraska Wildlife Rescue received it on February 10 and has received a flood of supportive messages from fans, indicating widespread public interest in the animal's well-being.

Earlier that evening, Dungey had her son put her homemade peanut butter balls on the outside deck because there wasn't enough room in the refrigerator. "We just didn't have any room," Dungey said. "In the winter, it's convenient because you don't have to try to cram everything in the refrigerator, you can put it on the deck in the backyard." This practice, while convenient, inadvertently created an opportunity for the opossum to access the sweets.

However, when her son opened the door, he quickly closed it and refused to go out again. "There's an opossum on your sofa," 22-year-old Hayden Dungey told her. At first, his mother didn't believe him. "I really thought he was kidding, so I went over and turned on the light and opened the door, and then I said, 'Oh my gosh,'" Kim Dungey said. "Then I said, 'Oh, it ate the Costco cake.' The whole cake was pretty much on the floor next to the sofa." The initial disbelief quickly turned into a realization of the unusual situation.

The two tried to drive the opossum away, but were unsuccessful. She became concerned that the chocolate might be toxic to the animal. Kim Dungey then contacted the Humane Society, which took the animal away for evaluation. The Nebraska Wildlife Rescue stated that eating the entire cake may have saved the opossum's life. The "Cake Bandit" is currently being treated for issues including its recent diet and unrelated lead poisoning, emphasizing the multiple health challenges facing the animal.

The organization's executive director, Laura Stastny, said in an email to CNN, "It seems it was lucky to be caught in the act because it allowed it to come to our hospital and be diagnosed with a disease that could be fatal to wildlife." Since its admission, the organization has designed T-shirts with the words "Cake Bandit," with the animal's rehabilitation admission record on the back: "Opossum brought in for eating an entire Costco chocolate cake. It was panting heavily but mobile and alert." The T-shirt sales are helping to fund the opossum's care and the organization's broader mission.

The Nebraska Wildlife Rescue posted on Facebook, saying, "We thought we'd celebrate the sweetest scandal of the week with a custom-designed Opossum Cake Bandit T-shirt, which also supports our mission to save native wildlife and contribute to success stories like this one." Stastny said the opossum is expected to make a full recovery and be released back into its natural habitat in a few weeks. "We are optimistic about its future release, but it may not be released back into the wild until the end of March or early April," she added. The organization is carefully monitoring the opossum's progress to ensure a successful return to the wild.