The shoe was found on a rocky outcrop a few hundred meters from the theft site.
When Mikael Bergmark was cleaning a pool one evening, he took off his trainers on the terrace just outside the front door and left them there when he retired for the night.
When he came out the next morning and saw that one of the trainers was missing, he was puzzled.
– It seemed strange that only one trainer was missing. We searched for an hour, and my thought was that maybe a dog had run away with it.
Finally, he had the idea to look at the footage from a surveillance camera he had installed in the yard.
That's when he saw what had taken his shoe.
– It was a lynx! It had my shoe in its mouth, says Mikael.
Despite the fact that lynxes are shy, this was not the first time Mikael had had a glimpse of the animal on his security camera.
– It had a wander around the farm when we were away, but then I thought it was being brave because nobody had been home for a while.
Mikael was able to see from the surveillance camera in which direction the lynx had gone, and together with his wife, Jessica, he followed its tracks to look for his stolen trainer. The shoe was found a few hundred meters from where it had been stolen. It was lying on some rocks.
– I thought that he might have chewed on the trainer or marked on it or something, but no. It was just lying there. I wore it to work today. A shoe must smell a little like a human, so surely that would put it off. But no. I have a hard time understanding why he fell for just that shoe.
The movie of the lynx scarpering with Mikael's shoe has been posted on Facebook and has received a lot of reactions.
– The first time the lynx crossed our yard, I posted the footage online. Even then, many people were shocked. The lynx is a very shy animal and many people found this behavior unusual. When it took my trainer, people were even more surprised!
Mikael Bergmark lost his shoe in an unusual way.
This is not the only time Mikael and Jessica have had wildlife on their property. Mikael says that last year they returned from a trip abroad to discover that a reindeer had moved into a grill hut on the property.
- We are very close to nature here at Bureberget and there are not so many people around, so the animals must feel comfortable in this environment, says Mikael.