Folks, check this out:
The bushy-tailed culprit, believed to be a vixen with a family of cubs, is still at large, and locals have two explanations for her kleptomania. Either she amassed them as toys for her children, or she simply likes collecting shoes, or both. So far 120 stolen shoes have been retrieved.

All jokes about collecting aside, this is the best part IMHO:
"She's clearly got a thing about shoes," Rudolf Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, the local count who lives in Föhren Palace, told SPIEGEL ONLINE. "We found 86 shoes in the den and a further 32 in a nearby quarry where they like to play. That includes 12 or 13 matching pairs of shoes."

A "count" who lives in a "palace"? Apparently this guy wields power since:
"Count von Kesselstatt had the retrieved shoes laid out in the palace on Wednesday so that the townsfolk can come and collect them."

Townsfolk? A count? A shoe stealing fox? This is 2009, right?

LOL!

Bizarre! At least the count was a kind count, and not the blood sucking kind.

I want to move there!

+1. I'm guessing real estate would be affordable since the houses are likely made of gingerbread and wish granting gnomes come standard with every marmalade tree.