Forget chocolate - this youngster was egg-stra happy to be reunited with her stolen bunny in time for Easter.

Spicy - a one-year-old lop-eared Angora bunny- was let out of her locked hutch by mean tricksters, leaving Erin Culff, four, really upset.

Her mum, Kate, 26, from Rayleigh Road, Thundersley, said: "I locked up the hutch for the night and when we came out in the morning, the door was open and Spicy was gone. There were balls of fluff everywhere, so we knew she had put up a fight.

"Erin was devastated. She cried her eyes out when we told her. We bought her the bunny a year ago and she named her Spicy because she couldn't choose her favourite Spice Girl."

In a last-ditch attempt to find the bunny, Kate searched the whole garden and found her wedged behind the shed.

She said: "Spicy was absolutely terrified. She must have gone for whoever let her out because she can be a bit vicious with strangers, and the ran off to hide. Erin is delighted to have her back."

Hop it - Spicy gave tricksters the slip, to little Erin's delight

Picture: ANDY PALMER

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