"Pickles," the dog who found the stolen 1966 World Cup trophy after thieves demanded a ransom of over 700,000 baht in central London, just before England won the World Cup.
The 1966 World Cup was the first and only time the "Three Lions," England's national team, won the World Cup as hosts, defeating West Germany 4-2 in extra time at Wembley Stadium on 30 July 1966, highlighted by Jeff Hurst's hat-trick.
But few knew that they might not have actually lifted the original World Cup trophy for the first time, as the real trophy, displayed in a showcase at Westminster in London, England, had been stolen, shocking the football world and nearly forcing the creation of a new trophy.
Shortly thereafter, the English Football Association received a ransom letter demanding £15,000, about 654,000 baht, from a man using the alias "Jackson," who was actually Edward Betchley. Police planned a sting operation, delivering a fake wallet to catch him, and the thief was arrested and detained, but there was no clear evidence that he was the actual thief.
The reason it couldn't be proven was that Edward Betchley was arrested only as the ransom recipient, not the actual thief. He may have been a middleman hired to negotiate the ransom, while the real culprit remained hidden. This left police without direct evidence linking him to the theft, such as fingerprints, witnesses, or possession of the trophy.
As a result, the English Football Association (FA) secretly ordered a replica trophy in case the original was never recovered—until a black-and-white dog named "Pickles" became a global hero by discovering the original Jules Rimet Trophy, stolen before the 1966 World Cup in England. Pickles found the trophy wrapped in newspaper under a bush while out walking with his owner, David Corbett, in South London.
Pickles noticed a strangely tied newspaper bundle beside a neighbor's car. Upon unwrapping it, they found the genuine World Cup trophy. Although police were initially skeptical, within hours Pickles was hailed as the national hero dog, and England's dream of winning the World Cup was revived—something they ultimately achieved that same year.
To this day, no one knows who actually stole the trophy. Edward Betchley was jailed for attempted extortion, but the case of the stolen World Cup trophy remains an unresolved mystery.