Cast member Kate Beckinsale attends a panel for "Total Recall" during the Comic Con International Convention in San Diego, California July 13, 2012. (Mario Anzuoni/REUTERS)

Actress Kate Beckinsale was left $1,000 out of pocket after she hired a pair of pet detectives to track down her missing cat and all she got in return was a bag of excrement.

The Underworld star was heartbroken when her pet, Wabbit, ran away, so she hired a professional team to scour the wilderness surrounding her Los Angeles home in a desperate bid to find her furry friend, but, the 38 year old confesses it turned out to be a waste of time and money.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno on Tuesday, she explained, "These two ... quite butch women showed up ... and they had on head-to-toe camo gear and I think some netting somewhere. They came in our house and the first one, this larger one, said, 'Can I use your bathroom?' and then went to the bathroom for a long time and then completely blocked all the plumbing in our house. That was the first thing that happened before any pet detecting even took place."

The women then brought in their dogs to explore the beauty's house and sniff out the missing cat's scent, and quickly took off.

She continues, "They got in a van that has 'Pet Detective' written on the side in Sharpie (marker) or something. It was really lame. I was starting to lose confidence at this point, and they sort of disappeared for five, six hours and came back at nightfall, of course saying, 'No, sorry we didn't find anything,' - because you know they've been sitting in the van the whole time eating sandwiches and hadn't actually looked at all.

"(They) then handed me - this is the worst bit - a brown padded envelope that said 'Evidence' on it and then they let me open it up and inside there was just poo," she said. "It wasn't even cat poo. What they were trying to say was, 'We think a coyote ate your cat and if you'd like to have this poo analyzed - for even more money - to see if your cat is in the poo, you can.'

"Isn't that horrible? So I was left with a bag of poo and a blocked toilet - and no cat ... It was nearly $1,000."