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A fossilised dinosaur egg stolen from Otago Museum on Tuesday was dropped off to Dunedin police this morning, but whoever returned it didn't stick around to discuss the ancient object.
The egg was left in a supermarket shopping bag at Dunedin central police station about 8am, while the main counter was unattended, Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross said.
However, the person would have been caught on security cameras, and the alleged thief was also caught on the museum's security cameras, he said.
Staff noticed the fossil missing from the Dunedin museum's ground-floor shop early on Tuesday, the Otago Daily Times reported. The thief walked up to it, looked to see no one was watching, put it in his bag and walked out.
The fossil was a hadrosaur egg from the Cretaceous period, between 145 million to 65 million years ago, and was collected in the Henan province in China.
It was valued at $1,700.
Police returned the egg to the museum this morning, and would look at the security footage today as part of their investigation.
