Montreal police indifferent to catnapping, Blacky's owners complain

The Bernabei familyis used to having items stolen from around their home pots, rakes, even the family vehicle but when one of their cats was stolen fromtheir front balcony last week, they demanded police intervene.

RobertBernabei, who lives in Montreal's Villeray neighbourhood, filed a report and brought footage from his security camera to police, but he says they didn't spend enough time pursuing his case.

"People are saying, 'Rob, you're making a big deal about a cat,'" Bernabei told CBC News.

"I have three kids. Am I going to have to tie my kids to the house with a rope when they're playing outside?"

When someone files a report with Montreal policethat their pet has been stolen, it's classified as a theft under $5,000.

Montreal police saidthere were about 27,000 reports of theftfiled in 2015.

There's no special classification beyond property theft for a stolen pet, despite animals beingrecognized as sentientbeings in Quebecin2015.

Catnapping caught on security video

The Bernabeis' cat, Blacky, was taken around 3 a.m. last Thursday, Nov. 24.

The family saw exactly what happened ontheir home security camera footage.

Around 2:45 a.m., a vehicle which appears to be a black SUV pulled up in front of their home, and someone got out and rang the Bernabeis' doorbell.

That womanpicked up the cat and brought it into hervehicle. The pair in the vehiclewaited for about 15 minutes before throwing Blacky's collar out the window, then ejecting the cat from the vehicle before driving off.

The same vehicle came back some time later.The woman got out andpicked up the cat a second time. This time, they left with the cat.

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Bernabei filed a police report and told policethe building next door has state-of-the-art security equipment which would be able to zoom in on the vehicle's licence plate number.

"Police were sent to go see [the other building's] camera, but they really didn't stay long. They stayed maybe two minutes," Bernabei said.

"They came back out and said, 'We don't see anything.'"

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'Cat-flipping' and concerned animal lovers

Suzanne Kleinburg from the foster care group Team Cat Rescue, based insouthern Ontario, has had foster cats stolen and says it's best to turn to the public for help in these cases.

According to Kleinburg, Bernabei's caseis not uncommon.

"Recently a cat was stolen from a store, and he was found a few days later on Kijiji," Kleinburg said.

"People flip cats and dogs all the time, and they make money. It's a very quick, very easy thing to do."

Because the person who took Blackyrang the doorbell first, Kleinburg suspects that maybe this is the case of an animal-lover overstepping her bounds.

"With outdoor cats, people will take them, or they'll get lost, or people will assume that the owner doesn't deserve them," Kleinburg said.

She suspects the person who took Blackymay have seen him outside before.

In cases where pets are stolen, it's usually due to a lack of supervision, said theSPCA'sAnitaKapuscinska.

She recommends not leaving animals outside such asdogs tied up outside while doing errands.

As the temperature dips, anyone who sees an animal outside and suspects abuse should contact the SPCA and "go about it the right way if they think an animal is being mistreated,"Kapuscinska said.

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How to find a missing pet

Kleinburg suggests that anyone whose pet has gone missing should print "missing" postersto put around the neighbourhood and also email those posters to vets.

She also recommended handing out the missingpet poster to children in the neighbourhood,offering them a reward if they find the animal.

"If there's a reward, kids will find a cat," she said.

• And the cat came back the very next decade