Security camera footage of a Swanage hedgehog whose ninja acrobatics astounded staff at the town’s Curiosity gift shop in Dorset, has gone viral.
The hedgehog nicknamed Ghost was captured on CCTV cameras in the garden section of the High Street store climbing into a hanging basket six feet off the ground after somehow scaling either a trellis or a wall.
Ghost the ninja hedgehog can be seen dangling from a planter top left, six feet up in the air
Spooky footage caught on CCTV
She then climbed out of the basket and hung in mid air for a few seconds before dropping into a second planter a few feet below, eventually curling up under some shelves in the shop and going to sleep.
On a previous night, the closed circuit cameras had picked up a large Buddha statue apparently shuffling to the edge of a shelf before falling off and shattering on the floor.
At first Curiosity staff wondered whether they had a poltergeist in the store – and it was only the following day after more ornaments were found on the floor that the cameras revealed the midnight marauder.
After putting the CCTV footage on Curiosity’s Facebook page, the story of the ninja hedgehog has been watched by thousands, and has brought a smile to the face of viewers around the world.
Ghost has since featured on the BBC, in The Sun newspaper under the headline ‘I feared my shop had a ghost’, the Mirror (‘Ghost caught on camera turns out to be ninja hedgehog’) the Telegraph (‘Hedgehog displays acrobatic skills inside gift shop’), and on many other news websites.
After a long drop, Ghost finished up in a much lower hanging basket before clambering out and going to sleep under the display
“Feelgood story with a happy ending!”
Rachel Eaton, of Curiosity, said:
“It has truly gone viral, as they say – a newspaper in Germany is the latest to be interested, so we have even gone international!
“And most recently, Take A Break magazine is paying us £100 for the story, which will go to the Hedgehog Rescue Centre that looked after Ghost, which is a nice touch!
“We put the footage up on our Facebook page as we thought it would make our customers smile and we were surprised at how many views it had – then the BBC asked to put it up on their website and it has been liked more than 31,000 times!
“It is a feelgood story with a happy ending and makes you smile, so we are delighted that people are picking up on the story and it has spread so far and wide!”
Rachel Eaton in hedgehog corner next to the trellis – or the wall – which Ghost climbed to reach the top of the shop
“I had no idea they could climb!”
Rachel added:
“When we were opening up the shop on Tuesday 25th August 2026 we noticed a Buddha statue, which was a metre tall, had fallen off a shelf and onto the floor of our yard where it had smashed.
“We thought it was a bit strange, because although it had been windy the night before, nothing else was damaged. So we looked at the CCTV and noticed that none of the hanging decorations were moving at all – it was just the Buddha that seemed to walk to the edge of the shelf and fall off.
“I’m not a believer in ghosts or anything, but it was very strange and quite spooky in a way, and the next morning there were a whole load more ornaments broken on the floor, so we went straight back to the CCTV and that’s when we saw our hedgehog.
“I had no idea that hedgehogs could climb, but she was right at the top of the wall before she flopped down into a hanging planter and then dropped a good couple of feet into a lower one.
“I’m assuming she climbed up the trellis, but I’m told they can climb up stone walls because they have really strong claws – but somehow she climbed up a good six feet.”
Ghost was eventually found curled up and sound asleep under display shelving in Curiosity’s garden centre
A call to Dorset hedgehog hospital
After further footage showed the little animal running around the yard unharmed, Rachel and her staff went in search of her and discovered her curled up asleep under the base of their garden display.
Rachel made a phone call to the Dorset Hedgehog Hospital, based around 10 miles from Wareham at Ashley Barn, Briantspuddle, and was advised to pick her up carefully and pop her in a cardboard box until a hospital worker could collect her.
Once at the hedgehog rescue centre, she was persuaded to uncurl to make sure that she wasn’t either pregnant or a nursing mother, then was checked for injuries, given food and water and later released, fit and healthy, into woodland near Dorchester.
A display of hedgehog gifts have now gone on sale at the front of the shop as so many customers have shown an interest in Ghost
“Slightly battered and bruised”
Rachel Eaton said:
“She was a little dehydrated and slightly bruised and battered, but hadn’t come to any real harm despite her ninja adventures!
“It was a bit of a shame, she should have come back to Swanage, you don’t often see them round here.
“I know people in Wareham who are forever seeing them, but you just don’t seem to get them in Swanage, and no one really knows why.”
A shattered Buddha statue was the first indication that Curiosity had a nocturnal visitor
“They have poor eyesight”
And Jim Dunne, of the Dorset Hedgehog Hospital, added:
“I’ve never seen such an adventurous hedgehog before. They have poor eyesight and rely on their sense of smell and hearing to get around, which means that they tend to blunder into things – if they can get themselves into trouble, they usually will!
“We normally release rescued hedgehogs back to a spot close to where they were found, as long as it is safe, but Ghost was in a shop, in the town centre, which clearly isn’t the best environment for her.
“One theory for the fact that you don’t get many hedgehogs in Swanage is that there’s a limited food supply of the things they like to eat, and they are in competition with other wildlife for them.
“So we released Ghost where we knew she would be as safe as possible, with a good supply of food, after checking that she was uninjured and at a good weight to go into autumn.”
Ghost is likely to have come down Stafford Mews before finding her way into Curiosity via the back door
Dorset Hedgehog Hospital trustee Elaine Willcox with one of the rescue animals in their intensive care unit
Further information
- Watch the CCTV footage of Ghost on Curiosity’s Facebook page
- Follow the work of the Dorset Hedgehog Hospital
