The BBC News published the above photo in conjunction with their discussion of the alleged suspect. Cryptomundo cannot, however, verify this is the correct suspect.

One of Nigeria’s biggest daily newspapers reported that Lagos, Nigerian police implicated a goat in an attempted automobile theft. In a front-page article on January 23, 2009, the Vanguard reported that two men tried to steal a car two days earlier in Kwara State, with one suspect transforming himself into a goat as vigilantes cornered him.

Vigilantes took the animal to the police saying it was an armed robber who had used black magic to transform himself into a goat to escape arrest after trying to steal a Mazda 323.

Police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said that while one suspect escaped, the other transformed into a goat as he was about to be apprehended. Later, the police paraded the goat before journalists, and published a picture of the animal.

“The group of vigilante men came to report that while they were on patrol they saw some hoodlums attempting to rob a car. They pursued them. However one of them escaped while the other turned into a goat,” Kwara state police spokesman Tunde Mohammed said.

“We cannot confirm the story, but the goat is in our custody. We cannot base our information on something mystical. It is something that has to be proved scientifically, that a human being turned into a goat,” he said.

Belief in black magic is widespread in Nigeria.

Residents came to the police station to see the goat, photographed in one national newspaper on its knees next to a pile of straw.

Thanks to Jeff Belanger for an initial tip on this one.