'GREAT Escape' ferrets have been on the run in the centre of Dartmouth. The pair of fugitives are now back with their owners after disappearing from their home in Clarence Street. But not before causing quite a chase on the streets, described by one shop owner as something out of Fawlty Towers. Within hours of the daring duo breaking out from their garden, there were reports of sightings in the town. 'They were leaving quite a trail,' said Nick Crosley, who was working away from home when he received a phone call from his distressed daughter, Izzi, 15, to say the ferrets had escaped. 'It was the sort of news that everyone dreads,' said former restaurant owner Nick, who was in the middle of judging the Great Taste Awards at Gillingham in Dorset. 'These little animals are led by an inquisitive nature that will lead them by the nose on a journey far from home. 'All I could do was phone a few sources in Dartmouth and ask a distraught daughter to post "Missing" posters around town. 'Within hours reports were coming in of sightings and the next day my voice mail and text messages went mad with people following their trail.' The tiny sable coloured creatures – six-month-old brothers called Caspar and Cole – are believed to have absconded under the garage door after a bolt broke on their hutch. One was returned by council workmen who found the errant creature curled up asleep in a bin in a compound alongside Mayors Avenue Gardens. The other escapee caused quite a shock for sales director Stephen Levy when it crawled out from under a desk at the nearby Coastal House estate agents. 'I heard a scratching noise and when I turned around I couldn't believe what I was seeing,' said Mr Levy.

More on this story in this week's Dartmouth Chronicle