Kittens Stolen From Sayreville Animal Shelter

SAYREVILLE, NJ — Kittens were stolen Saturday and Sunday from a Sayreville animal shelter, and shelter employees now want nearby animal rescue groups to be on high alert.

The suspected thieves, a man and a woman, stole the first kitten from the shelter Saturday, and then were brazen enough to return Sunday and steal a second one, said Amy Ray, the manager at Animal Rescue Force on Main Street in Sayreville. Animal Rescue Force operates out of the same building as Sayrebrook Veterinary Hospital. Ray was working Saturday and said she got a bad feeling as soon as the couple walked in.

"I thought, 'Those two look creepy. I would not adopt to them,'" she said. "I really think they are local even though their car had PA plates. I think they live nearby and were scoping us out in advance."

The couple showed up between 1:30 and 2 p.m. Saturday. The veterinary office has surveillance video of them pulling up and walking in. The man is described as "dirty looking," with greasy, shoulder-length black hair and a tattoo on his forearm, and the woman as described as thin and Asian with a tattoo on one shoulder. They parked a black 2006 Pontiac Grand Prix with a PA front license plate by the front door and deliberately waited until the shelter got very busy to come in.

"The surveillance footage shows them pulling into the far end of our parking lot, waiting in their car for a while and then pulling up to the very front," she said. "They waited until everyone was very distracted to come inside. The were only in our facility for about nine minutes."

The man told a shelter volunteer he wanted to look at kittens. While the volunteer obliged, the woman quietly went into another room and removed a baby black cat from a large cat condo cage that housed four kittens total.

"She put it in her purse and they walked out," said Ray.

It wasn't until Sunday morning that shelter volunteers cleaning cages even noticed the kitten was gone. The condo cage is big and has a cat house inside. "We assumed the kitten was just sleeping in the cat house," said Ray. "We don't do head counts of our animals at night, but now we're clearly going to have to start."

Even though they knew the kitten was missing, the shelter opened for business as usual Sunday, thinking the kitten had simply run out of the cage during a cleaning and would turn up. That's when the couple returned, again at 1:30 p.m., which is always the shelter's busiest time. Again, the man distracted a volunteer and the woman returned to the kitten condo cage.

"One of our volunteers shouted that a second kitten was now missing from the cage. A family that was doing paperwork for an adoption said, 'Well, these people were just here and they just ran out.' That's when we knew it was them," she said.

Animal Rescue Force contacted Sayreville police and is working with a detective on the case. But Ray wants to spread the word on her own that this happened. The shelter charges $100 for a kitten adoption, which includes all the shots, de-worming and any medical care the animal needs. The shelter only takes in rescued or abandoned animals. One of the stolen kittens was found under someone's porch, the other was found behind a Rt. 1 apartment complex. Amy fostered them herself.

"I don't know why someone would do this; that's the scary part," she said. "Are they just thrill seekers? Was it the thrill of stealing a kitten? I hope to God that's all it is. Or are they stealing them for pit bull fighting? Are they riding around doing this all over?"

Animals stolen from rescue shelters is unfortunately not uncommon: Someone broke into the Edison Petco overnight five years ago and stole two kittens that were being kept there.

Ray asks that if anyone knows these two contact her via email (amra444@msn.com), or call the shelter at (732) 257-7559 or call Sayreville police at (732) 727-4444. All tips can be anonymous.

"Even if the two kittens are returned anonymously, I just want to know they're OK," she said.