A startled London shop owner contacted the RSPCA after discovering a fox in their storage room on Sunday (January 8).

The vixen found her way into the House of Essentials storage room on Rye Lane in Peckham.

The concerned shop owner sounded the alarm to the RSPCA after the vixen proved quite the shop-a-holic by spending most of the day inside the store.

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RSPCA inspector Harriet Daliday said: “CCTV footage showed the fox entering the storage room first thing in the morning, but when she failed to emerge later in the day, the shop owners became concerned and called us to help at 2.30pm. 

“We are still completely baffled how she got in there in the first place.

"She had managed to wriggle her way into a tiny gap under some boxes, making her incredibly hard to find in the extremely full storage room.

“The poor girl was absolutely terrified when we got to her, and she was really wedged beneath a stack of boxes.

"I had to get right down onto the floor to help her get free. 

“We had to be extra careful because the shop owners had expressed concerns she may have an injured back leg, but once we got her out we could see she was spritely and uninjured.”

The rescue was a success, and the RSPCA was able to return the fox to the wild soon afterwards.

Ms Daliday added: “I released her into a nearby quiet side street with a lovely green space. We always aim to release animals as close to where they are found as possible, so they know where they are and can easily get back home.

“She was a lively girl and very happy to be back out and free to find her way home.

"It’s a really lovely moment when you can release an animal back to safety.” 

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Kamran Raza, a spokesperson for House of Essentials, added: “We were very surprised to find the fox in our storage room.

"The RSPCA were brilliant and we were really pleased they were able to help rescue and release the fox back to safety.”