‘I literally just started crying my eyes out when I picked him up.’: Catnapped feline saved and reunited with family after AirTag alerts caused thieves to dump the cat by roadside

Author image for Laurent Shinar
Laurent Shinar • Writer and Editor
Oct 1, 2026 4:45 PM EDT

If you are a regular reader of stories on our site you will have come to know that cats get lost in all sorts of ways. Most times it is through innocent mistakes, either by the pawrent or cat child resulting in some sort of event that spooks the cat, causing them to run off and hide indefinitely. It is the very reason that pawrents are instructed to keep their search radius small as cats are known to stick to their hiding spots even when their pawrents turn up with their favorite snack to tempt them to come out. But in the case of this story our missing feline happened to have an air tag around its neck which went on to tell quite the different tale.

Thanks to the locating device on this cat's collar it was clear from the get go that what had happened was no fault of the cat, not their grandpawrent who had been caring for them. It was the work of some wickedly twisted hoomans who had decided to spontaneously steal the cat and claim it as their own. Little did they know that their getaway was being tracked and that soon they would be caught. Well, perhaps that is not entirely true as when this feline's pawrent heard of the disappearance she immediately activated the tag's stolen alert.  

And while that alert is what caused the thieves to part ways with the cat they had captured, that very parting is what made this feline's rescue that much tougher.

 

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter to start your Caturday with the funniest felines on the internet!

Advertisement
  • 01
    "I'm never letting my mom take my cats outside again."
    via iGuessiLikeChicken

    Gray tabby cat lying on shelf sniffing finger.

    Image depicted solely for explanatory purposes.


     

  • 02
    Yesterday was a night. My two cats are of a allowed to go outside under supervision. I was at work, so my mom was watching them outside. I get home around 4:15 PM and my mom has a look of panic on her face. She tells me that Simba is
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 03
    missing and hasn't been able to locate him for 15 minutes now. She went to the restroom and didn't see him when she came back out. I felt this nasty pit in my stomach and immediately hop on the Find My app to track his AirTag.
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 04
    The AirTag pinged a location about 10 minutes away (driving distance, not walkable distance). My mom isn't good with technology, so my brother and I handle everything. I check the Ring app and start
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 05
    looking at footage. Within the 5 minutes my mom went inside, a black car pulled up next to our yard. A man and a lady hopped out, grabbed him, put him in the car, and took off quickly. He's approachable, but my other cat isn't. She took
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 06
    Cheezburger Image 10667126528
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 07
    off. I immediately jumped in my car and followed the last pinged location. I get there and it's a busy intersection. I check the app again and it pings even further down the street, on a very commuted road. I ended
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 08
    up hopping back in my car and going to the new location. I pulled up and see his AirTag collar on the floor. It's cut off like if they used scissors or a pocket knife to cut it. I just started bawling my eyes out and accepted
    via iGuessiLikeChicken

  • Oh goodness this is a sorry situation. It is heartbreaking enough to be in a situation where your sweet cat child has disappeared while not under your care. But to then have the only means of finding their location be thrown away like trash is crushing. All hope that this pawrent might have had to find their fur baby is now dashed to the wind. Now, it must be said that even the basic fact that this cat had an air tag is rather outstanding and that in most cases there would not even be a location to track. But who is to say if it is worse to have had some hope and to have it dashed, than to have never had that hope at all.
     

  • 09
    the fact that my cat was gone. I started searching the area for about two hours, hoping I would see a sign of the car or my Simba dumped somewhere. I ended up going home devastated. I posted him on Pawboost, Nextdoor, etc.
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 10
    Cheezburger Image 10667129600
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 11
    My brother got home around 8:30 PM, so we decided to go searching in the general area again. I read online to search during midnight hours, but I didn't feel right just sitting at home. We hopped in the car and started going everywhere.
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 12
    We talked to neighbors outside walking and knocked on doors. About an hour into the search, I started losing all hope. I drove about 5 minutes further from the last pinged location and made it to a street called
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 13
    Rose Avenue. It was pitch black and I couldn't see. Something told me to keep going down the street, so we did. Right as I get halfway down there, I look to my left and see a head with two little ears pop up from a bush and immediately go back
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 14
    down when it notices me. My brother shines the light and we see it's a cat! We slowly got closer and I see it's my gn Simba. We tried to grab him but he got scared, so he ran across the street.
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 15
    Cheezburger Image 10667130112
    via iGuessiLikeChicken

  • Holy moly, situations like this make it so hard to deny that cats have some sort of telepathic, otherworldly connection to their pawrents. How else would these hoomans have had the instinct to keep driving in the dark, and no less feel when it was the right time to stop and get out the car to have a look around. It can only be the work of such a special connection. This situation could have dragged on for days, weeks, months and even years. But here they are, about to be reunited mere hours after the catnapping. 
     

  • 16
    Thankfully I had his Purr Pops on me, so | convinced him to eventually come up to me. I literally just started crying my eyes out when I picked him up. We drove
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 17
    back home and finally reunited him back with the family. I'm assuming they decided to dump the collar when they saw it was tracking him. I also put it on Lost Mode, so it
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 18
    shows up on nearby phones. They also dumped him about 5 minutes from the last ping. I'm pretty sure Simba put a fight and they gave up. I don't know what told me to turn down the street and
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 19
    CHEEZIT
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 20
    keep going, but I'm so glad I did. That area is riddled with coyotes at night. If I wouldn't have trusted my gut I probably would've never found him again. I'm never letting my mom take my cats outside (it's
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 21
    not her fault, but she could've put them inside) unless it's me or my brother. I'm just so happy to have him back home. I would've never recovered if he was gone forever. I will be going into the Sheriffs Station shortly
    via iGuessiLikeChicken
  • 22
    and file a police report (if they take me serious). I posted some pics of my fat boy too.
    via iGuessiLikeChicken

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

dump thieves cat road reunited cause reddit story saved cat story feline family kidnapping crying alert
Scroll Down For The Next Article