Police: Boyfriend, friends charged with animal cruelty, theft for missing Cressona cat
CRESSONA, Pa. — The search is on for a house cat in Cressona, Schuylkill County, that’s been missing for over a week, though it didn’t just venture off. Three men are now facing theft and animal cruelty charges. Dawn Troutman and Todd McShaw thought it was unusual their family cat Catalina ran away.
“We searched our videos just to see if I could see Catalia, if she passed somebody in the doorway,” said Todd McShaw. Catalina didn’t, though what their Blink camera captured outside their Cressona home sent them to police: a bag that moved and meowed. “The second video was when the bag was sitting there and the one individual walked out and you could hear her screaming in distress,” said McShaw. “The third video is when the next individual came out and took the bag, then left.”
An affidavit said that man was 25-year-old Andrew Huber, boyfriend of the couple’s daughter, who also lived at the home. It said the others were his friends, 19-year-olds Ayden Spantak and Nathan Youst, who were visiting on New Year’s. Police say Huber told troopers he didn’t know where the cat was.
Investigators say the daughter got a call from Youst saying the men threw Catalina out of a vehicle, but wouldn’t say where. The Ruth Steinert Memorial SPCA, where the family first adopted the cat, quickly joined the search. “It is sickening,” said Tandi Kashner, the dog manager at the Ruth Steinert Memorial SPCA.
“She’s just quiet and didn’t deserve this, because she’s not a vicious cat,” said Dawn Troutman. “She’s just a house cat. She just was lovable and we can’t wrap our heads around why anyone would do this to her or any animal.” The SPCA said the men bragged to coworkers that they threw the cat out the back of the truck along Berne Drive.
That road is where a lot of the search efforts have been centered. “Try and take a picture,” said Kashner. “Contact us. Get ahold of the family.
Contact the Schuylkill Haven State Police. Our end goal is to ultimately bring her home to the family.” “We’ve been having various tips…currently, the Schuylkill River,” said McShaw.
“The last potential sighting of her was at Turkey Hill,” said Troutman. “Our home has been tainted.”
Catalina, around 8-years-old, is microchipped.