CCTV captures the world's most adorable intruder.

When Hollie Breaux Mallet sat down to review the security camera footage of her home she didn’t expect to see anything. But there it was, right there on the screen. A shadowy figure running down her driveway and into her garage.

It’s enough to give you chills. Until you find out what happened next.

The figure approaches Hollie’s dog, kneels down and hugs the dog, kissing her head and nuzzles his face into her fur. He then sprints back up the driveway and peddles away, as if he can already hear the sirens.

That shadowy figure is Josh, a young boy from Lousiana who has melted the hearts of people the world over.

When Hollie saw the heartwarming footage, she put the call out on social media, to see if any of her friends could identify the drive-by hugger in the video.

“Attn Neighbors!,” she wrote on Facebook. “Anyone know who this sweet little boy is? Every now and then when he rides his bike he will quickly come and love on my dog or play fetch real quick, but always leaves quick like he doesn’t know if he should be here! I’d like to tell him he’s welcome to stay and play, she loves the attention!”

Less than a day later a sheepish mum named Ginger Clement Breaux put her hand up. “Josh talks about your dog all the time! Every time we pass he looks to see if she was sitting where he could see her,” she commented. “Just didn’t know he was doing things like this. Last night when I first saw it, I was torn as a momma being happy and upset because he knows he shouldn’t be on someone’s property, but I wake up this morning more happy that he just absolutely adores dogs so much.”

The world agreed. The footage of Josh’s adorable antics has now been viewed more than 1.9 million times and his story covered by media across the globe.

The original post has been shared over 11,000 times and attracted dozens of comments, including questions about why a boy who clearly loves dogs so much doesn’t have a puppy of his own.

His mother Ginger responded, explaining that their family dog, a little Dachshund named Bella, had recently died.

“We had our dog Bella since Josh was two, but she passed away last year,” Ginger wrote. “Things have been busy and Josh is active with after school activities so we have not jumped back into taking on the responsibility of starting all over again with a new pup quite yet. It will happen though!

In the meantime, Hollie’s dog Duchess will be there for all the furry cuddles Josh needs. Despite his initial embarrassment at being caught – his mother said he “went 10 shades of red” when she showed him the video – Josh still visits his four-legged friend regularly.

But now he doesn’t have to run.

Images via Facebook.