Arvind said the “light-fingered gingers” are not only “very prolific” across the city but have taken up residence in thousands of back gardens in BS5.
“They do a lot of thievery,” she said.
Arvind said while she had found “several shoes”, it was only after becoming the victim of a fox with a “fetish for shoes” herself that she realised the extent of the problem.
She later set up the support group after seeing various missing shoe posts on Facebook and often seeing “odd shoes lying around in the street”.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be great if we could reunite people with their missing footwear,” she added.