A MASSIVE wooden statue of a cat pinched from outside a market stall in Blackburn has turned up after an appeal in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Market trader Craig Preston was left scratching his head after the rare seven foot statue weighing 20 stone was taken from outside his stall in Blackburn Shopping Centre during late-night shopping.

The statue, which had been imported from the Far East, was later seen being hauled into a taxi in the town centre, but after that the cat-napping trail went cold.

Craig, 27, of Ewood, Blackburn, sells hand-carved items from his stall outside Optical Express and said he was staggered when the cat went walkies.

"It was beyond belief that anyone would want to steal the statue, let alone how they carried it out of the shopping precinct," he said.

The cat became the talk of the town after the Evening Telegraph appeal and is now back in its rightful place after being anonymously returned.

Craig said: "A former school friend told me he had heard the cat was being offered around town.

"But following the newspaper appeal apparently no-one wanted to touch it with a barge pole.

"I never expected to see it again, but it has suddenly turned up after being dropped off my house anonymously and is now installed back in its rightful place."

The cat statue was hand-carved in Thailand, where it is now illegal to fell pieces of wood that size, so it is particularly rare.