It's 3 am. I hear someone dragging something across the patio. Consider a raccoon but decide I'm not confronting a burglar. From the upstairs window I can't really see anything, but it doesn't seem big or competent enough to be human. I go back down and get the flashlight by the back door.

It's a raccoon with a holiday popcorn tin, trying to drag it away. And while I was distracted by this, I didn't close the door to the kitten room tightly, and the kittens, who think they're too big for a curfew, have all escaped.