It started, as these things often do these days, with an Amazon delivery driver who took a shine to a UK family’s pet feline.
Catalin Stancu, 41, was delivering a package to a home in West Yorkshire this January when he spotted a floofy tabby cat named Nora. When Nora didn’t come back inside that day and was still missing a day later, homeowner Carl Crowthers checked footage from his surveillance cameras and saw Stancu interacting with Nora before picking her up and driving off with her.
We wrote about the theft at the time, noting Amazon hadn’t changed its standard customer service response (“How much would you say your cat was worth?”) to customers traumatized by the company’s drivers stealing their beloved pets.
Crowther also hinted that he’d like to go into more detail, but didn’t want to endanger an ongoing police investigation. Now we know why.
Nora’s family contacted West Yorkshire police, who put Sgt. Cat Ryan in charge of the investigation. Ryan used information from the surveillance videos to track Stancu to his home. Around the same time Stancu, realizing footage of himself was spreading on socials and in traditional media, contacted Crowthers via Facebook to return Nora.
On Thursday, Stancu was sentenced, marking the first time a person has been successfully prosecuted using changes made by the Pet Theft Act.
That law, passed and enacted in 2024, creates a new category for pet thefts recognizing animals are not just property that can be replaced. It gives police new ways to charge people accused of stealing pets and provides judges with more options for sentencing, including up to five years in prison, fines, community service and other sentencing conditions.
It’s also a model for other countries and jurisdictions. Currently, almost every US state law lists pets as property, most under archaic agriculture and markets laws that were meant to settle disputes over farm animals. This is also a subject we’ve covered, noting the numerous advantages of modernizing animal laws so crimes involving pets are treated differently than, say, an argument between two farmers about who owns a particular cow.
Stancu admitted to driving off with Nora before his sentencing, but said despite the fact that she was wearing a collar, he thought she was a stray.
“I didn’t steal her, I took her,” he told the court.
District Judge Paul Marks gave Stancu an eight week suspended jail sentence and ordered him to pay £500 in compensation, which equals about $670 at current exchange rates. A suspended sentence is the UK equivalent of a conditional discharge in US courts, meaning Stancu must stay out of legal trouble for at least a year to avoid serving jail time.
Marks acknowledged that Stancu made efforts to return Nora once the story hit the press, but said his actions still violated the law.
“Whatever your initial motive was for taking Nora, and whatever concerns you had about Nora’s health, you should not have behaved in the way you did,” Marks told him. “Nora was a much-loved family pet and the family wanted her back… The distress they suffered for three days when they knew nothing of where Nora was, was very upsetting.”
In a statement, the family said they’d spoken to Stancu, accepted his apology, and hope the case helps people realize they’re doing more than removing “property” when they take a cat or dog. Nora, they said, is a member of their family.
“We are incredibly thankful and relieved that she was eventually returned safely to us,” the statement reads. “We hope today’s outcome sends a clear message that animals are not objects to be stolen, and that the pain caused to families by these actions is very real.”
As for Sgt. Cat Ryan, she said she was happy to catch Catalin Stancu and return a family’s beloved cat. The Pet Theft Act, she said, made it possible because such crimes are now taken more seriously under the law.
“One look at how happy the Crowther’s have been happy to have Nora home, and see how settled she is to be back, only confirms how important it was for us to achieve this outcome,” she said.
NOTE, 5/15: Stancu’s sentence included £500 in compensation to the victims and a suspended eight week jail term. Under the plea agreement, Stancu will avoid jail if he stays out of legal trouble for the next year. A previous version of this story did not note the jail sentence was suspended.
Pain In The Bud 
This is a good outcome. I hope it’s a lesson to other would-be cat thieves, although despite being reported by the BBC the episode doesn’t seem to have been widely covered here. I only learned of it courtesy of PITB.
Regarding the sentence it’s worth noting that the jail time was suspended for 12 months, meaning that the guilty party won’t be put behind bars if he behaves himself for the next year. That seems fair enough, given that he ultimately returned Nora and apologised to her family, and that our jails are massively overcrowded right now. The compensation payment (fine) of £500 demonstrates to everyone that the Pet Theft Act is to be taken seriously.
On a lighter note, I couldn’t help chuckling when I saw that the police officer who dealt with this is called Cat, while the guy who committed the crime also has a name (Catalin) that readily lends itself to being shortened to Cat. You couldn’t make it up!
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Thanks for mentioning that “suspended” in the context of UK sentencing is the same as what we’d call a conditional discharge, and for being so subtle about informing me I misunderstood not only the sentencing agreement, but also the fact that the £500 was compensation. I will write a correction as well, for transparency and because I should have known better given my background covering crime!
It’s surprising that the sentencing didn’t generate more stories considering the initial theft was widely reported and the surveillance video was shared worldwide via social media. Perhaps because the connection to Amazon was a bigger part of the theft than the sentencing agreement?
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Just a few hours after I’d posted my comment Mrs P casually asked me “did you see that report on the internet about the guy who was arrested for stealing a cat?” Clearly I’d been snoozing at my keyboard! But I do think that over the last few days balance of news has been affected by the UK’s ongoing political meltdown. Another day, another crisis…
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Fixed and correction attached. Thanks again for letting me know!
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No problem. I can see that the language used in the BBC report may be open to misinterpretation by anyone not versed in the nuances of the British legal system.
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I know it’s different in the UK, but people PLEASE keep your cats indoors unless you are directly supervising them.
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This family won’t let their cat out now, despite her going only about as far as their driveway before. It’s catio or nothing.
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I’m grateful that the Two Buddies wrote about this incident. And happy that Amazon takes “pet theft” seriously. A happy ending for once!
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Thanks! I’m not sure Amazon did anything in this case though, as the homeowner caught the incident on camera and the police tracked the driver via his tags, IIRC. The West Yorkshire UK police took this case seriously, thankfully.
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Good karma!
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Good, I’m glad this was taken seriously by the police!! (and people wonder why I keep my cats indoors!!)
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And it shows why these laws are necessary. Without them, the police are put in a situation where they’re asked to devote resources to investigate a crime equivalent to petty larceny, and the courts can’t do much to penalize the offenders.
With the laws, cops can justify the investigations and judges have discretion regarding sentencing.
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I spent three months in the UK. It seemed like EVERYBODY had a cat, and I’d often get a friendly cat – wearing a collar – approach me for pets, and chin scritches.
I’ll never forget this cutie that came up to me in Bath. I’d reach out my hand, and the cat do would what I call the dolphin thing, i.e. jump up and run her head under my hand.
I so wish there are laws against animal theft in this country. A neighbor who lived across the street from me had her dog stolen from her yard. She never saw him again.
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They’ve got a whole different view over there that cats need access to the outdoors to be happy, and I can’t say they’re wrong and we’re right because it’s definitely a challenge to keep a cat stimulated indoors.
Ideally maybe we’d all have catios or secure backyards.
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What a beautiful cat. I’m glad she was rescued. It’s amazing that the same drivers who don’t have time for a bathroom break somehow find time to steal a cat.
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