BELTSVILLE, Md. — Police in Maryland have arrested a man they said stole a kitten and then took the animal to a bank robbery.
The bank robbery happened on Monday in Beltsville, Maryland, WRC reported.
Security camera footage shows a man walking into a Pet Supplies Plus location wearing a light-colored T-shirt and a black beanie and then moments later running out holding a black and white kitten.
A store employee said the man had used a key to open a cat adoption area and scoop up the 3-month-old kitten.
Store employees said the man had been in the store almost every day for the past couple of weeks and was focused on the kitten, named Magnolia, each time.
Store manager Aaron Kurkowski told WRC that the man “came in and saw none of my team was nearby the front, and he just went right to her and ran right on out.”
Witnesses told police the man ran directly to a bank in the same shopping center where he demanded money.
Stephanie Stullich from Beltsville Community Cats rescue was called by a store employee who alerted her to the cat caper.
Stullich ran over to the store, and when she got there, had quite a surprise.
“Immediately saw all of these police cars, and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s a heck of a response for a stolen cat,’ but then I realized they all were going down to the bank,” she told WRC. “[…] They came back out a few minutes later and said, ‘Yes, there is a cat inside the bank.’ Apparently, he went into the bank with the cat in his arms, and he walked up to a bank employee and said, ‘Can you hold this?’ And then he wrote a note and handed it to a bank teller and it said, essentially, give me all your cash.”
Prince George’s County Police took the man into custody at the bank.
No one was hurt in the incident, WJLA reported.
The cat was returned to the rescue, where she was still available for adoption.
“She is looking for a law-abiding citizen with a lot of love in their heart,” Stullich told WRC.
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