Help Track Down This Cat Thief And Return Kitty To Her Loving Family

A Nebraska family is heartbroken after a woman stole their cat right off their porch in broad daylight.

Mr. Kitty was taken under duress, and her absence has left a cold spot on her human’s bed — and in her family’s hearts.

Despite her name, Mr. Kitty is a female calico Manx rescued about eight years ago by Benjamin Strimple, who found Kitty with her leg caught in a racoon trap.

“When we got this cat, it just became my everything,” Strimple said. “Became like my best friend. Every single night I sleep with her.”

Now he’s worried for her safety and hoping for her return after his Ring doorbell caught a woman walking directly up to his porch in Omaha, NE, and taking the unwilling Mr. Kitty by force in broad daylight on Oct. 20.

The video shows the woman approach and hold out a hand. The friendly cat sniffs her hand at first, but pulls away as she leans forward. Mr. Kitty fights back as the woman tries to corral her, but a close look at the video shows the woman using what appears to be some sort of spray device before picking the cat up with both hands.

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A screen shot of the Ring doorbell footage showing the suspect stealing Mr. Kitty from her family’s Omaha, NE, porch.Click here to view the video.

She carries Mr. Kitty back to a silver Chevy Malibu and drives away. The suspect is a black female with long hair who was wearing an orange skirt, a brown or black shirt and dark sneakers in the footage. Strimple says he doesn’t know the woman but she looks familiar and he may have seen her in the neighborhood before.

Mr. Kitty does not venture off his property, he said, and spends most of her time indoors or on the family’s porch, where neighbors are accustomed to seeing her.

“I feel like it was like their plans. You know, they seen my cat,” he told KETV Omaha, an ABC affiliate. “I’m pretty sure everyone on the street knows that cat belongs to this house.”

Omaha Crime Stoppers and the Nebraska Humane Society are offering a $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the woman and the return of Mr. Kitty. Anyone with information on the theft can contact Omaha Crime Stoppers at 402-444-STOP or www.omahacrimestoppers.org. If you know anyone in the Omaha area, please share the story and encourage them to share it on social media.

The theft is not only traumatic for the family, but for Mr. Kitty too, pointed out Nebraska Humane Society’s Pam Wiese.

“I’m sure that [s]he’s probably like, what? What just happened?” Wiese said. “I was just loving up on someone and now I’m no longer home.”

Strimple said the only thing he cares about is getting his furry friend back.

“There’s a lot I want to say, but I would just say, just give her back,” Strimple said. “You know, that’s pretty messed up. We have a lot of family, a whole family sad. Just give her back.”

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23 thoughts on “Help Track Down This Cat Thief And Return Kitty To Her Loving Family”

  1. I am sorry to say this but these idiots do not deserve to have a cat if they are going leave it outside. I have been livid the past few days because a very friendly black cat is roaming the streets on block where he lives. Saw him on Saturday.Two blocks away from me. Looked at his collar and no address. Going back and forth into street. Let out on purpose.NEAR HALLOWEEN. I was told owner is, or was, looking for Midnight. I know one monster on the block who throws rocks at strays in her garden. As rescue groups say a friendly cat is a cat in danger of cruelty or death.

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    1. I’ve volunteered at a couple of cat shelters. Not only are black cats the LAST to be adopted but they don’t adopt them out weeks before and after Halloween. Black dogs are also in the same boat, but it seems cats are the easiest targets for half-witted, vicious, morons – who, I might add, should be eliminated from the face of this planet.

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      1. Unfortunately I see all that nonsense with my Google News alerts for cat-related news. Every week there are stories about people dumping kittens on highways, shooting cats with arrows, BBs and blow darts, burning them, physically abusing them, neglecting them…we have a seriously diseased culture in this country, especially compared to places like Turkey where people treat cats incredibly well. In Istanbul cats are allowed to nap in stores, bars and offices, the streets are lined with miniature cat shelters, there are cat parks, and cats trust people so much that there have been several stories about females bringing their sick kittens into hospitals where doctors treat them.

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  2. It takes a cold-hearted person to steal someone’s pet. I hope they find the kitty safe. And catch the guilty party. Seems like a certain conviction with the precision DNA identification available through cat fur. That information should be more widely known, to discourage criminals.

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    1. The DNA stuff is experimental at this point and probably will be relegated to violent crime like home invasion robberies and murders since it requires proper crime scene processing and lab analysis, but the footage is pretty solid and that skirt is unusual, so hopefully someone IDs the women who stole Kitty.

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      1. It makes me cry just reading about someone stealing a cat! We don’t let our kitty outside at all.except in his kitty condo! He is too much of a family member to lose! I am so sorry about that kitty! Any news yet?

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  3. May the person who worked this crime
    Face justice in quick time.
    May Karma come back to she
    Three times three times three times three.
    As I will it, so mote it be.

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  4. Why did she steal this kitty? There are hundreds of adoptable cats she could get. She seems just plain vicious. I hope the family gets their kitty back ❤

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    1. That kills me too. It doesn’t just hurt the people, it hurts the cats. Buddy would be despondent if someone took him, I know he would.

      Meanwhile like you said, there is no shortage of cats in shelters who need a home.

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  5. To M. Yes. Rescue groups will wait to adopt black cats near Halloween. Any applications coming in for black cats? They are investigated as much as possible.This includes home visit. If applicants vet says they are a good pet owner then they will get cat. The rescuers i know are super careful.

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      1. That’s a pity. Btw, did you catch the WaPo article on how cats have far more facial expressions than experts previously thought? They identified 300 or so.

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      2. Yup. Been meaning to write about it and I figured it would be a good thing to mention in an article about the explosion in cat-related research lately. I also wondered how the new facial expression research compares to the Feline Grimace Scale research that forms the basis for veterinary pain analysis and apps like Tabbly.

        It also goes to show how bad we humans are at reading their more complex facial expressions. I think we all know our cats well and we know the obvious stuff like ear and whisker movement, but who imagined almost 300 expressions?

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      4. I wondered the same thing. I don’t think we can consciously list or describe 300 human expressions. It seems like saying there are 300 for humans or cats is an exercise in quantizing complex emotional states.

        If, for example, I told you I wouldn’t sell Buddy to you, would the look on your face accurately be described as disappointed, incredibly disappointed or absolutely devastated? (It’s a joke, people! I’m not selling Bud, although Quilpy and anyone else is welcome to give him scritches at the next BuddyFest convention.)

        Something like a smile can be complex and we might not be able to put our finger on it but our subconscious knows when, for example, a smile is tinged with regret or betrays mixed feelings.

        Then again, maybe quantizing emotional states is necessary when the beings in question can’t speak for themselves?

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      6. He’s been much better, thanks for asking, Jean. Back to his usual self and maybe a little more loving than usual lately. He’s eating normally and I’ve adjusted his diet to 80% wet food instead of letting him have dry food available all the time, as well as refreshing his water bowl as much as possible.

        I hope those changes help keep him hydrated and lose the pound or so he needs to shed.

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  7. Spunkmeyer gets two servings of wet food (BIG ONES FOR A BIG BOY -His words not mine) per day. I think he has quit growing but they grow till they turn 4! He will be four in January (approx). We chose January cause the vet said in August he was about 7-8 months old. (Right after we got him) So January it is! He is still only about 20 lbs so maybe he has quit growing! He says “Hi Buddy!”

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