Story Archive

Cat Burglar

“It’s a very strange story, it’s just something that you wouldn’t think would happen,” says Chris Nelson of Troy, Vt. His daughter was home alone when a man walked into the house and told her, “I am here to feed my cat Mason — feed my friend’s cat Mason.” The family doesn’t have a cat named Mason, but they do have a cat, and the home’s security camera system showed the man carrying it away. “When he left he took my cat, Boots,” Nelson says. Police took a report, but said there was little they could do. The next day, the man was back — inside the locked house. “He was sitting here on the couch smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee and watching TV,” Nelson says. This time the police took the case more seriously, and thanks to the family getting the man’s license plate number, they arrested their prime suspect: Mark Frady, 54, and Boots was returned. (RC/WCAX Burlington) ...As a defense, he’ll just claim Boots is a Frady cat.