ALFIE the rabbit bounded to freedom after his owners disturbed a thief who tried to grab him from his hutch.

Owner Keith Muggeridge woke to see a youth snatch Alfie from his home in Spindle Close, York, at about 4am on Wednesday.

But the thief dropped the animal as he ran off - and Alfie was quickly reunited with Keith's four-year-old daughter, Becky. The attempted theft is the latest in a recent spate in York.

Earlier this month, six-year-old Marie Neilson, of St Stephen's Road, Acomb, was reunited with her pet Smoky after it was found in a garden more than a mile away. And another rabbit was taken from Fulford last week.

Keith's wife, Lynn, said: "Becky would have been devastated. She talks and plays with him all the time."

Updated: 10:43 Saturday, May 17, 2003