U.K. police are looking for an Easter bunny-sized, world record-holding rabbit after it was reported stolen from a backyard pen over the weekend.
The big-shot bunny is a continental giant rabbit named Darius, and he holds the Guinness World Record for being the longest rabbit in the world.
He was taken from an enclosure in the U.K. village of Stoulton, according to West Mercia Police.
“It is believed the continental giant rabbit was stolen from its enclosure in the garden of the property of its owners overnight on Saturday 10 April to 11 April,” a police spokesperson told The Guardian.
Authorities did not say why they believe it was a theft and not an escape, but they’ve seen neither hide nor hare ever since.
The rabbit’s owner, Annette Edwards, claims he was “stolen.”
“Please please I am so upset,” she tweeted on Tuesday. “Can you bring my Darius back?”
Edwards, who breeds the large rabbits, says that Darius would be of no use to a record-seeking thief because he’s too old to breed.
“It’s just so upsetting because he is such a lovable character,” she told The Telegraph.
Although the rabbit can’t be bred, it’s still a “high-profile” prize that can be sold, according to Robert Kenny, a professional pet detective.
“The only way that this can be sold is if it goes out of the U.K.,” he told The Guardian. “If the animal remains in the U.K., I have no doubt whatsoever that it has to be recovered. The owner needs to contact ferry ports and make sure that this rabbit does not go outside of the U.K.”
Edwards says that Darius is on a special diet for his advanced age, and he will likely die without it.
She initially offered a 1,000-pound reward for his return, but she jacked that up to 2,000 pounds on Tuesday.
One could simply describe Darius as a “big hopping rabbit,” but police released a more detailed description of him as part of their search.
He is described as a grey-brown rabbit measuring 129 centimetres (4 feet, 3 inches) long at full stretch. It was that stretch that earned him the record.
Rabbits of his age are known to reach 7-9 kilograms (15-20 pounds).
Measurements aside, Darius shouldn’t be hard to recognize because he’s the biggest rabbit anyone will ever see.
—With files from The Associated Press