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.”
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.
For the family, the reunion comes after lots of worry, stress, Ray Ishak 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 gave no indication the driver was disciplined or terminated. In an email exchange with the company, 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.”
via Pain In The Bud