Major General's plea after seagull steals precious Royal Navy telescope cap

British Army Major General Alastair Bruce has made a public plea to find the silver cap from his father's Royal Navy telescope after it was stolen – by a seagull.

The major general took to Twitter to share the story of how the thieving bird snatched the antique telescope part while he was parking his car.

"Seagull (probably) thought it was a sweet, grasped and flew landed short distance as I shouted. Put cap down. I ran! It stared at me, beaked it & flew towards Esplanade", he said in his tweet.

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The current Keeper of Edinburgh Castle is urging people to keep a lookout for the cap, saying it "could be on any rooftop in Edinburgh".

Maj Gen Bruce said that the "value rests in that it was my dad's" – the telescope was a present from his father.

"He would have used it as Officer of the Watch on board warships he served in. He commissioned into the war in 1943 and was in HMS Ramillies for D-Day in 1944," he said.

He said he was "shifting stuff in my car when the seagull pounced", taking the cap in his beak and flying off.

"I'm very fond of it and brought the telescope to the Castle when I became Governor but the cap was missing. It was found last week and I was shifting stuff in my car when the Seagull pounced".