Car thieves beware: Leopard in boot!

The owner of a rare species of leopard said his car was stolen on Tuesday in Saint Petersburg and the thieves were in for a surprise. There is a baby leopard in the boot.

"My driver and I were in the process of settling the leopard in the trunk of my Mercedes... when three masked assailants attacked us. They managed to get away with the car," Mikhail Barakin told AFP.

Barakin is offering a reward of 70,000 euros (90,940 dollars) for the return of his exotic pet, an Asian Leopard Cat, worth more to him than the Mercedes SUV.

"I am worried about the leopard. I don't need the Mercedes. If someone returns the animal, I won't press charges," he said.

Barakin, who heads a private television station in Saint Petersburg, said the rare breed of Asian Leopard Cat was a gift from a Moscow businessman he had dealings with. He could not say where the animal had been procured.

The leopard is worth about 270,000 euros (350,760 dollars) by Barakin's estimates.

The Asian Leopard Cat, which is no bigger than an average house cat, is native to Russia's southern border with China and across Southeast Asia, but only a few thousand of the rare species remain. It is not an endangered animal.