It's not every day you see a red squirrel, so staff and customers were surprised to see one making itself home in a Scottish Greggs.
The red squirrel was even honoured with a staff badge and name tag by the Newcastle-founded bakery chain. And despite some concern after passersby noticed a pest-control firm's van outside the Greggs in Pitlochry, the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed intruder has been safely released back into the wild.
"After giving us the run-around, we managed to catch the Greggs Squirrel safe and sound. Thanks for the, er, enthusiastic first shift," tweeted Greggs, with a video of the squirrel back home in the woodlands.
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Today Greggs confirmed the shop is closed for a "deep clean and will reopen later this week".
In honour of the cute intruder, Greggs changed its display pic on Twitter to the squirrel and issued it with a name badge.
Richard Horobin told Scotland's Daily Record he'd seen pest controllers entering the building, who work for an ominously named firm, Terminix, but the endangered variety of squirrel was never in danger of being killed.
Chemistry academic Richard explained: “These people were clearly up to speed on the issues involved in trapping a protected species.”
“They told me ‘Everything is in hand’.
Scotland is home to 75% of the UK's dwindling red squirrel population. They are a protected species and it is an offence to kill, take or injure one.
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