A 25-year-old man allegedly caught on video stealing a kitten from a pet adoption center in Oregon has been arrested by authorities on charges of first-degree theft and second-degree burglary.
Portland police arrested Luke J. Andrade for stealing Swan, a two-month-old kitten that was kept at the Pixie Project, a pet adoption center on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The adoption center has surveillance cameras which on Sunday captured images of a shirtless bandit, wearing a ball cap and a backpack and appearing to take a drag from a small pipe just before the cat-napping, walking into the pet adoption center and swiping a small black kitten. The video was released to police and oregonlive.com and Andrade was arrested and charged with the theft one day later.
The theft occurred on Sunday at around 6:25 p.m., according to oregonlive.com. The news agency spoke with Kate Northington, a worker at the shelter who said the "alleged cat-napper walked through the shelter's unlocked front door around as a few volunteers and employees worked in other rooms in the building."
"At first I thought it was a walkie-talkie," Northington told The Oregonian/OregonLive, after viewing the video. "One of our kennel techs said he was definitely smoking something."
The man in the video, allegedly Andrade, can be seen approaching an animal cage and leaving with a small kitten in his hands.
The kitten, Swan, has not been found, according to the report, but he has been microchipped. Police said they think Andrade "sold Swan to another man in downtown Portland on Monday," oregonlive.com reported.
Adoption center employees are upset by the theft and hoping Swan is found.
"There's a gut-wrenching fear that comes with seeing someone take one of your babies," Northington said.
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