Meet Pickles, the dog that found the World Cup cup

The World Cup made Pickles the most famous dog in the history of the sport. It is true that the role of the collie dog is still questioned, but in history, it is said that he found the Jules Rimet cup, offered to the world football champion.

On March 20, 1966, just under four months from the start of the tournament in England, the trophy was put on display at Methodis Central Hill in London. It wasn’t even the most valuable thing there. There was also a stamp collection valued at 3 million pounds (43.7 million pounds corrected or R$257.3 million).

But the prize offered to the winner of the world championship was the item chosen to be stolen that night. When the disappearance was discovered, there was a note demanding the payment of 15 thousand pounds (218 thousand pounds corrected or R$ 1.3 million) as a ransom.

It was a scandal.

“It’s a bad joke if in England a trophy can be stolen and never found again,” complained FIFA secretary Helmut Kaeser.

The local federation released a statement acknowledging that the episode brought “discredit to himself and to the country.”

Scotland Yard, the local police, began investigating the crime and, within days, announced that they had arrested an intermediary, but without finding the trophy. A reward of £3,500 (currently £51,000) was offered for information leading to the criminals or the stolen item.

On March 27, David Corbett, 26, was walking his pet dog Pickles through Beulah Hill in London’s South Norwood area. The dog started sniffing the neighbor’s car and focusing his attention on one of the front wheels.

“I was going to a phone booth because my sister-in-law was having a baby. Pickles saw that there was a package next to the tire and I was afraid it was a bomb. It was a time when the IRA [Exército Republicano Irlandês] was committing attacks. But it wasn’t. I tore a little underneath and saw a piece of the plate. I instantly recognized what it was,” Corbett told the Daily Mail years later.

Corbett’s first reaction was to take the cup to the nearest police station. The sergeant dismissed him. He said that wasn’t the stolen Jules Rimet. Only in the face of insistence was a more detailed verification carried out. When it turned out that this really was the missing trophy, he came to be seen as the prime suspect.

“I soon realized that they were suspicious of me and my story. But I answered everything they asked because I had nothing to hide”, he added.

When he got home, he had another surprise. She was surrounded by the press. The story had leaked and Pickles was considered a national hero.

The duo received hundreds of invitations over the next few months. One of them went to the official dinner after the World Cup, a celebration of the home team’s title.

Cobertt received £5,000 (£72,800 currently) in reward and advertising contracts in which the dog was the star. He used the money to buy a house. Pickles participated in a feature film and received invitations to events and openings.

The episode is still a target of suspicion. How could a dog have found such an important trophy like that? But no one could discredit the story that has become famous.

Pickles died the following year in an accident near his home. He ran to chase a cat, but his leash caught on a tree branch, choking him.

When the news of the cup was stolen, Silvio Pacheco, the representative of CBD (Brazilian Sports Confederation, current CBF) at the World Cup, complained that “something like this would never happen in Brazil”.

The selection was definitively owned by Jules Rimet when it won it for the third time, in 1970. Thirteen years later, the cup was stolen from the entity’s headquarters, in Rio de Janeiro, and melted down.