A Midtown woman said three of her cats were stolen after her home was broken into. Two were found, but one remains missing.
SAN DIEGO — Annelyse DeMuch left her home in Midtown for 40 minutes to pick up a pizza on June 30. When she returned, she said her front door had been broken into. Nothing appeared to be missing, but three of her cats were gone. Binx, Mitsy and Noodle were missing, but her fourth cat, Mouse, was hiding inside.
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At first, DeMuch thought the cats might have gotten out during the break-in. Then a neighbor told her he had seen something that made her question whether they had escaped at all.
“He said, ‘No, I haven’t seen any cats, but I did see something strange at a house,'” she said. “Someone in a black hoodie sweat set was carrying a white fluffy — he said dog at first because Mitsy is pretty large, into a tan van parked outside, and I asked which house, and he took me back to my own house.”
That sent her search in a different direction.
DeMuch reported the break-in to the San Diego Police Department and began looking for surveillance video. She also hired a scent hound to search for the missing cats.
She covered the neighborhood with hundreds of flyers and eventually turned to social media. That post took off, and people across San Diego began sharing it.
A person who saw DeMuch’s post found Mitsy in South Park several weeks after the cats disappeared. A few weeks later, Binx was found in the same area.
“I’m so thankful, and I still can’t believe it,” DeMuch said. “They were a 15-minute drive away, and they both were over there. It just doesn’t make sense.”
Noodle, her small black cat, remains missing.
“I believe he’s still out there. He’s a really good hunter,” DeMuch said.
The viral post also brought DeMuch something she did not expect: messages from other cat owners who said they had experienced similar incidents.
“They’ve had their home broken into, nothing else stolen, just their cats,” Annelyse said.
DeMuch began collecting those stories through an email address, SanDiegoCatTips@gmail.com, hoping to document the reports and see whether there was a connection.
“I’m trying to figure out if there’s a common denominator. Like, you know, if we all went to the same vet, if we all had the same, like, you know, rental company,” She said.
DeMuch said the stories she had received so far involved people in a similar part of San Diego, including Midtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
The experience also changed the way DeMuch approached her own cats’ safety. She became more cautious about allowing them to sit in windows where they could be seen from outside, and about posting photos of them online.
“Get a camera first of all, I would get one outside and inside your home,” DeMuch said. “I would honestly be cautious about showcasing your cats in the window. I feel like that’s how they knew I had cats.”
She asked anyone with information about Noodle, or anyone who believed they had experienced a similar incident, to contact her at SanDiegoCatTips@gmail.com. CBS 8 reached out to the San Diego Police Department for more information, but has not heard back.