Amazon – Page 2 – Pain In The Bud

Once Again, Amazon Has No Answers After A Delivery Driver Steals A Pet

Amazon has not been helpful when its drivers have stolen pets from customers, treating the incidents as customer service issues.

A woman in California is in a panic after her cat went missing and her home security cameras showed an Amazon driver carrying the kitty away.

Diane Huff-Medina’s footage shows a driver bending down to pet her cat, Piper, during a delivery this weekend. After delivering the package, the Ring camera footage shows, the driver grabbed Piper on the way out, put her in his vehicle and drove off.

“I thought he was just petting her for a second, but yeah … I had to rewatch it a couple of times because it is hard to see, it’s dark, and he doesn’t carry her very nicely,” Huff-Medina told LA’s KABC. “I see her little tail and I was like, ‘Oh my God.’ I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.”

Piper the cat. Credit: Diane Huff-Medina

Unfortunately incidents like this seem to happen regularly, and Amazon continues to fall woefully short when it comes to handling them and helping reunited their customers with their pets.

In an incident from last year when one of the company’s drivers stole Feefee, a cat belonging to the Ishak family of Everett, Washington, Amazon’s customer service representatives told the family the company could not force the woman to return the cat, and refused to give the woman’s address or even her general neighborhood to the family so they could search for Feefee.

In a similar incident from August, an Amazon driver stole Murphy, a cat belonging to Kathy Souza from Massachusetts. While Souza thankfully was reunited with Murphy, Amazon was not helpful, she said.

“I spoke with someone at Amazon who asked, ‘Is the cat worth more or less than $200?’” Souza wrote incredulously on Facebook while Murphy was still missing.

This time, an Amazon rep told Huff-Medina they’d identified the driver, but couldn’t get in touch with him.

It’s amazing that after all these incidents, Amazon still treats the theft of cats and dogs by their delivery drivers as a customer service issue, and seems to have no standard protocol for working with law enforcement to get the animals returned.

Indeed, there’s one common thread to all the stories that end happily — in those cases the victims did everything they could to find their pets and did not wait for Amazon or local police to take the thefts seriously.

In the Ishak family’s case, they spent several days posting flyers, talking to local media and driving around in a widening circle to look for the car they’d seen on their doorbell camera. That’s ultimately how they found Feefee: instead of surrendering the scared feline as she told Amazon she would, the driver simply dumped Feefee outside her own building. The Ishaks found Feefee scared and hungry, hiding in the bushes outside the driver’s apartment complex, but otherwise unharmed.

In Souza’s case, her relentless efforts to make noise and draw attention to the driver and Amazon ultimately prompted the driver to return Murphy.

So we’re hoping Huff-Medina takes a similar route, because unfortunately these cases are not a priority for the corporate behemoth, nor for local police, as most state laws consider pets property, and stealing a pet is considered a small time crime. Let’s hope there’s good news soon.

Another Amazon Driver Steals A Customer’s Cat

A Massachusetts woman hopes she’ll be reunited with her cat after an Amazon driver took the feline during a delivery.

In one respect, it feels unfair to blame Amazon for its employees stealing cats.

The company’s drivers make millions of deliveries to American homes, and the vast amount of time there are no problems.

On the other hand, this has happened so many times now that you’d think Amazon would make it a priority to tell its drivers: Do not steal cats from customers. It’s not acceptable, it’s traumatic for the cats and their humans, and it’s horrible PR for the company.

The latest incident involves a driver who was caught on camera this week stealing 18-year-old Murphy, who belongs to Kathy Souza of Somerset, Massachusetts. Security camera footage shows the driver retrieving cat food from her vehicle and chasing after Murphy, then disappearing.

Souza told a local NBC affiliate that neighbors at an AirBnB saw the driver steal Murphy. The driver allegedly told them she was concerned about the cat, that it “didn’t seem right to her and she was going to take it,” Souza said.

As of mid-morning Wednesday, Souza posted an update saying she was waiting at the Somerset Police Department, where the driver apparently agreed to return the cat.

Like so many others before her, Souza found Amazon tone deaf, minimally responsive and unhelpful.

“I spoke with someone at Amazon who asked, ‘Is the cat worth more or less than $200?'” an incredulous Souza wrote on Facebook.

A customer service representative also asked Souza to fill out a satisfaction survey, which mirrors the experience others have had when the company’s drivers have stolen pets. Amazon handles the cases as if their drivers stole or damaged property rather than taking living creatures often considered family by the people who love and care for them.

The company’s responses are similar to the way it handled the case of Feefee, a 13-year-old tabby cat stolen from a family in Everett, Washington, by an Amazon driver in late July of 2024.

In that case, Amazon offered to compensate the Ishak family by sending a stuffed animal resembling Feefee, and told owner Ray Ishak that the apologetic driver had contacted police to return the cat. That wasn’t true, and to make matters worse, the Amazon driver abandoned Feefee and wouldn’t tell the family where she’d dumped the cat. Ishak spent several days driving through his neighborhood and surrounding areas, looking for the driver’s car which was visible in his doorbell camera footage.

Ishak found his cat without Amazon’s help after a great deal of stress and effort.

Souza said she would post another update about Murphy “when I have him in my arms.”

Update, 2:05 pm: Souza has been reunited with Murphy.

In a statement, Amazon said the driver’s behavior doesn’t meet the company’s standards and promised an investigation, but a friend of Souza wrote on Facebook that it was pressure from social media posts and local news reports, not action from Amazon, that prompted the woman to return Murphy.

“Rescuing animals is honorable, but due diligence is imperative, and this woman did not do hers,” she wrote.

Murphy is well known among neighbors and doesn’t stray further than three houses from home, Souza wrote in an earlier post.

We’re glad Souza and Murphy have been reunited and this story has a happy ending.

As for the lessons learned here, anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves in this situation should not wait for Amazon to act. The company won’t have the same sense of urgency, and its customer service staff aren’t trained or equipped to take the necessary steps, like liaison with local law enforcement.

In cases where people have recovered their pets, the common thread is that they took the initiative, used social media and local news to get the story out, and were relentless. Time is crucial, because in some cases delivery drivers will panic and abandon stolen pets.

Header image credit Wikimedia Commons

‘More Purring, More Buying’: Bookstores Give Readers A Reason To Drop In

In the era of Amazon, America’s independent bookstores survive by offering things the online giant can’t.

Like everything else in the realm of print media, bookstores have been having a rough go of it the last decade or two.

Waldenbooks, Crown Books and Borders no longer exist, with the latter chain shuttering its last 400 stores in 2011. Barnes and Noble is the last surviving book chain thanks to an aggressive strategy of expanding their cafe and lounge space, encouraging shoppers to hang out while they sample books and drink coffee.

There are still some 14,000 bookstores in the US, depending on how some hybrid businesses are categorized, and independent booksellers now make up the majority of real-world retail while the giant that is Amazon looms.

The key to survival is offering things Amazon can’t. Some distinguish themselves by catering to specific customers, like fans of mystery or science fiction, offering rare and signed volumes alongside their regular stock. Some pursue a Barnes and Noble-like strategy, leaning heavily into the hybrid coffee shop model. And some become community spaces for book signings and poetry nights.

Others lure customers inside — and back after they’ve already visited — with pets.

In a new story, the New York Times highlights independent book shops around the country that have dogs, lizards, turtles, rabbits, and of course, cats.

When it comes to our furry and clawed friends, some shops are populated with adoptable felines:

At the Literary Cat Co. in Pittsburg, Kansas, readers have the opportunity to adopt a pet while they shop. The store partners with a local rescue organization, hosting about seven cats at a time, along with three permanent feline “employees”: Hank, the regional manager; Scarlett Toe’Hara, the assistant regional manager (she’s polydactyl); and Mike Meowski, the assistant to the assistant regional manager.

Jennifer Mowdy, the store’s owner, described each cat’s role, personality and origin story with the air of a matriarch ticking off successful grandchildren. Speaking of the upper respiratory illness that cost Mike Meowski an eye, she sounded stoic. He was a kitten; she was there for him. They soldiered through.

Mowdy created a glass alcove for allergic customers – and to deter escapees – and a “kitty conference room” (accessible by cat door) for litter boxes. With regular scooping, four air purifiers and daily mists of Mrs. Meyers Room Spray, she said the scent of the store is neutral to positive.

In the past year and a half, the Literary Cat Co. has facilitated 50 adoptions. “We’ve only had one cat that didn’t work out,” Mowdy said. “Too much fight in her.”

Kittens tend to wreak havoc; Mowdy prefers a mature animal of the “Don’t call me, I’ll call you” variety. Felines are welcome to scale shelves and interact with readers as they please, which is their way.

“They get to practice being a good house cat,” Mowdy said. “They get socialized.” Occasionally, the right cat finds the right reader’s lap. The rest is destiny (with the rescue organization handling logistics; the Literary Cat Co. simply makes the introduction).

Check out the entire story here. (No paywall.)

Buddy The Cat: ‘The Only Limit Is Your Imeowgination!’

Buddy the Cat explores deep within the heart of the Amazon jungle, where he encounters foul and hostile creatures!

Today we present Buddy the Cat in an Amazonian Adventure, brought to you by the Center for Greater Buddesian Propaganda.

“The Center for Greater Buddesian Propaganda: Documenting The Achievement’s Of Earth’s Most Interesting And Ripped Feline, One Legend At A Time”

Today’s adventure finds our hero returning to the jungle to commune with the ancient jaguar spirits and eat turkey with his jaguar buddies.

The lesson: The only limit is your imeowgination. You’re as brave, meowscular and ripped as you imagine yourself to be. Or, at least Buddy is. YMMV.

Happy Sunday!

Wash. Family Recovers Cat Stolen By Amazon Driver: ‘She Left Her Outside To Die’

After an Amazon delivery driver stole their cat from their driveway, a Washington state family went to great lengths to recover their beloved tabby — without the help of the online retail giant, which declined to put them in touch with the driver.

Feefee’s back home.

The tabby cat, who belongs to the Ishak family of Everett, Washington, has been reunited with her humans after an 11-day ordeal that started with her abduction by an Amazon Flex delivery driver on July 21 and ended with a long and determined search by her family that led to an apartment complex about six miles from their home.

“My wife and I drove around over the last three days concentrating on apartment buildings until [Thursday] when I spotted a car that matched [the driver’s],” Ray Ishak told PITB. “I have been in the car business for 26 years. I know what to look for. Perfect match, even missing the front wheel cover, just like in the [home security camera] video.

“We went to the leasing office and explained we were looking for our cat and reason to believe it might here. The office employees immediately commented that the police were there a few days ago asking about the cat. We knew then we were at the right place.”

Feefee gets a warm welcome from one of the family’s dogs. The 13-year-old tabby cat was stolen from her family’s driveway on July 21 by an Amazon delivery driver. Credit: Ray Ishak

Feefee’s back home. Credit: Ray Ishak

Feefee digs into a bowl of food after returning home. Credit: Ray Ishak

Ishak and his wife spent the next few hours searching the grounds around the apartment complex, which are covered in heavy brush. While they didn’t find Feefee, they spoke to several children playing nearby who confirmed they’d seen the missing tabby. They gave their phone number to the kids, asking them to call if they spotted Feefee again.

“Around 6 pm they called,” Ishak told PITB. “We took off and found her in very heavy brush and sticker bushes.”

The couple gave the kids rewards for their crucial help, then gently coaxed their frightened cat from out of the brush where she’d been hiding.

A video taken afterward shows a famished Feefee digging into a large bowl of food after her long ordeal. She’d clearly not been eating over the past week and since she’s been home she’s been doing little else besides sleeping and eating.

Ishak said his grandchildren, who are particularly close to Feefee, were “elated” when told she’d been found.

For the family, the reunion comes after lots of worry, stress, taking time off work to search for her — and frustration that neither Amazon nor the driver who stole Feefee helped them recover her.

“What is infuriating is the area where [Feefee was found] is right behind the building where that person’s car was parked. That cat has been out there for days with no food and multiple people have seen her on multiple days. [The Amazon driver] just let her out and could have very easily told us and we could have very easily found her days ago and all this would be put to rest.”

The driver stole Feefee from the family’s driveway after delivering a package on July 21. Footage from the Ishaks’ security cameras shows the female driver squatting down in their driveway to pet the 13-year-old cat. The motion-activated camera timed out momentarily, then was triggered a second time as the Amazon driver left with Feefee in her car.

When confronted with video evidence, Amazon admitted the driver had taken the cat and told Ishak the driver went to the police to return her. That wasn’t true: Ishak checked with the Everett police as well as the county sheriff’s office, and neither had been contacted by anyone trying to return a stolen cat.

Then the driver’s story changed. An Amazon rep told Ishak that the driver claimed Feefee had escaped and was missing.

When Amazon would not put Ishak in touch with the driver, he pleaded with them to at least point him in the right direction, suggesting the driver could make a burner email address or call from a blocked number — anything just to get a lead on where Feefee might be.

The woman refused to cooperate.

“She knew where the cat was for over a week and still refused,” Ishak fumed. “She purposely left that cat outside to basically die, while everyone online was calling us bad people for letting our cat be an indoor outdoor cat and that she is better off with that person.”

The online retail giant never gave Ishak an explanation for why one of its drivers would steal his cat, and said only that she no longer works for the company. In an email exchange with Amazon, Ishak pointed out that his family had been victimized in a crime committed by a company employee, yet Amazon was treating it like a customer service issue and protecting the driver.

In the meantime, the family was frustrated by online comments criticizing them for allowing their cat outdoors on their own property. Feefee was diagnosed with asthma years ago and benefits from fresh air, Ray Ishak said. The cat was in the family’s driveway, just a few feet from their home, when she was stolen.

“I took time off work and after a few days of pure determination looking for a needle in a sea of haystacks we found her,” Ray Ishak told PITB. “I guess we’re not so bad after all.”

Videos and photos in this post courtesy of Ray Ishak.