MADISON (WKOW) — The owner of a Madison pet store where a kitten was reported stolen June 12 says the kitten has been returned.
The owner says a woman who claimed to be the mother of the suspected catnapper returned the kitten to the store along with an apology note.
Surveillance video shows a couple coming into the store a week ago, and while the woman distracted employees, the man stuffed the kitten into his shirt.
There is no word yet on any arrest or possible charges.
Mary Hopkins, owner of Noah’s Ark Pet center in Madison, told 27 News last week that typically the kittens roam free in the store.
“People love to come in and play with them,” Hopkins said. “They love to come in and interact with them, they can see the personality of the kittens.”
But, she says, the two people betrayed her trust.
“A girl came in with a man,” she said. “I was a little suspicious because he had a hoodie on and he had sunglasses on and it was at night.”
Hopkins says she saw them playing with kittens in the back of the store.
After they left, one of the kittens was missing.
The kitten was taken from the cages they are kept in overnight, but luckily all of it was caught on camera.
“He grabbed the kitten out of the cage,” she said. “Opened the cage door, took it out of the cage, put it under his shirt first and then later on in the video we saw he put it into his pants.”
This isn’t the first time someone has stolen from them.
“It happened when we first moved into this location four years ago and that was before we had video cameras,” Hopkins said.
Now the whole store is hooked up to cameras, which gave them high quality pictures of the people responsible.
More at WKOW 27 News