San Diego

Feline Felony: Kitten Caper Caught by Home Surveillance

Officers indicated the case could involve felony charges due to the value of the kittens.

A San Diego family wants their three kittens back and they hope surveillance video will help uncover more about the thieves who took them.

Trina Payne left her Allied Gardens home Thursday to pick up her preschooler and got a frantic phone call from her teenage daughter about a stranger in their backyard.

The teenager went outside and noticed the kittens were all missing from a gated enclosure.

A review of the home surveillance video footage confirmed what appears to be a planned out kitten caper.

The video shows a woman, who appears to be wearing a wig, enter the backyard through a side gate holding a pet travel carrier.

Moments later she hurriedly walks back through the gate to the front yard where a getaway driver is waiting curbside in a black pick-up truck.

"The fact a stranger just entered our property without me knowing and took something so important to us and important to my kids, it's very upsetting, they're devastated," Payne said.

Payne says the kittens and their mother, Rosie, spend most of their time inside but get some fresh air during parts of the day in an outside enclosure on their back patio.

She believes the thief must have scouted out the house and her movements for days, because of how infrequently the kittens are left outside.

The family called San Diego Police and officers opened an official investigation Thursday evening. Payne says the officers indicated the case could involve felony charges due to the value of the kittens.

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