Jacinda Ardern's neighbor reportedly fesses up to running over New Zealand's first cat

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The mystery of who killed New Zealand prime minister's cat nearly two years ago has reportedly come forward.

A neighbor of Jacinda Ardern told the New Zealand publication Stuff that he was guilty of running over Paddles, the famous first cat while backing out of his driveway.

The man, who asked to only be identified as Chris, said he got out of his car to see what he had hit and saw a cat run off. While searching for the feline, he said a woman came out and realized they might be searching for the first cat of New Zealand.

"She said: 'that's my neighbor's cat'," Chris told Stuff.

"I pointed at [Ardern's] house and said: 'Not this neighbor!'"

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Paddles had a large social media following and 'thumbs' on his paws, and Chris said it was hard after he found out the cat had died.

"It was kind of shocking at first, and I felt fairly bad because I knew a bit of the back story, I knew Paddles had some kind of social media presence and had an extra toe," Chris said, according to the report.

Chris sent Ardern and her partner Clarke Gayford a card to apologize for killing Paddles. On the card, Chris' 7-year-old daughter asked Ardern not to send her father to prison.

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Ardern and Gayford were gracious about the incident and called Chris to make sure he was okay. Chris and Ardern even ran into each other in a park and spoke a few months after the call, he said.

"I said, 'I'm so sorry,' and then she said, 'No, I'm sorry' and it kind of went around in circles," Chris said.

Fox News' Tyler Olson contributed to this report.