Pets bring a lot of joy into any home but one cat brought in cold hard cash. Yep. This is the story of Cindy Charles and how she adopted a cat that started bringing dollar bills left and right.
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Well, before Cindy could even enjoy or process what her cat was doing. The police came knocking on her door and demanded answers to questions, the new cat-mom herself had. Read more to find out exactly where and how the cat was finding all this cash and how the police handled the situation.
Meet Cindy
The twenty-five year lived in a quiet suburban neighbourhood and after recently going through a bad breakup and many of her friends suggested that she get a pet to soothe and comfort her through this trying phase in her life.
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And Cindy decided to listen to them. Little did she know that this simple decision was going to end up changing her life and not in the way she had expected. Soon, this young woman was about to get involved in the world of crime.
Adopt Over Shop
Well, Cindy had no idea that the next few days would break her life apart and merrily went to shelter after shelter looking for the perfect cat to adopt. She was going to be a first-time pet owner yet still choose to adopt over shop.
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And when she saw an old male cat who she found out had been looked over by many people because of his age, Cindy knew that she had to give this neglected cat a forever home. And that is how it all started to go wrong.
A Routine
Cindy named the cat Tabby and was advised by the shelter to keep it indoors for the first few weeks to get the old cat adjusted to his old home despite all the warnings the first-time cat mom had heard, Tabby turned out to be a great and easy-going companion.
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And soon enough, Cindy started to trust him to venture outside on his own. He was smart and loyal and always returned when she called to him. And going outside always made the old cat seem young again which made Cindy feel like it was the right choice… until one day.
A Drastic Change
With a full-time job, a social life, running the house and now taking care of Tabby Cindy had her hands full. And had neglected to get her cat a collar. But one day, as she called to him to come back inside for dinner she noticed a rather strange change.
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Tabby was wearing a collar. Not just any collar but a rather distinct one with a rather large pouch on the side. At first, Cindy thought she had actually let the wrong cat inside but a closer inspection found out that it was in fact her Tabby and that this mysterious pouch was rather heavy and full.
Full Of Money
After Tabby was settled for the night, Cindy decided to investigate this collar and its contents further. She expected it to be full of trash or dirt. To her complete surprise, it was bursting with wads of dollar bills!
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Cindy counted them, was shocked, and then counted them again. Altogether the pouch contained quite a lot of cash but why was this strapped to her cat? What was Tabby doing and whose money was this?
What Now?
As we mentioned already, Cindy had a lot going on in her life and while it was astonishing she soon forgot about it. She left the money as it is, but the young woman had an idea when a friend called to set up a dinner with her.
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She made reservations for the two of them at Bern’s Steakhouse, an expensive restaurant inside Tampa, Florida and decided to use the money Tabby had brought to buy herself a new outfit and pay for dinner.
Not Like Her
This was very unlike Cindy, who was comfortable but didn’t ever splurge on anything. And her friend instantly noticed. And Cindy tried to explain this sudden change in her by claiming she had gotten a new job with a better salary.
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And this white lie was going to unravel everything for not just Cindy but for the people who were involved with Tabby’s cash. Cindy’s friend was left unconvinced with the lie though and felt that something was off about the whole deal.
More Cash
Cindy had let Tabby out nightly after the collar appeared and each time, he ended up with more and more cash. It was clear that this money didn’t belong to Tabby or Cindy but the naive 20-something kept quietly using it over and over again.
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She started to live a life of fantasy where she lived big… on the cash Tabby had. She bought expensive designer things and treated her friends and even random dates she had met. Cindy had been completely changed and corrupted by the money.
Mysterious Letter
One night, as she called Tabby inside she noticed that there was something sticking out of her mailbox. Cindy had already checked it in the morning, so this was very peculiar. She carefully walked to her mailbox, paranoid.
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It was a letter, written in ornate Chinese which Cindy didn’t know how to read but she knew that somehow this was linked with the money. It only made sense. Ever since she had started taking the money Tabby found, Cindy had been waiting for this.
A Gameplan
The 25-year-old woman had long come to terms with the fact that whatever Tabby had gotten Cindy involved with, it was definitely illegal. But this was even more than what she had expected.
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Cindy decided to stop letting Tabby outside anymore and while she missed the money, she was worried that the letter wasn’t just a threat but a real possibility. That something might happen to Tabby.
Police
With no more money and Tabby not going out, Cindy had thought that this was the end of her problems until the police showed up the next day. A team of disgruntled cops knocked on her door, demanding Cindy answer their questions.
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It looked like Cindy had gotten herself involved in something far bigger. You see, people close to her had noticed her lavish spending and one of them had reported her to the police, sure that Cindy was up to something fishy.
Breaking Down
And as soon as the police showed up, Cindy lost all her will to lie. She came clean about where she was getting the money from and how Tabby had been bringing it every night. She claimed innocence in all of this.
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But the police weren’t convinced. This was just too bizarre to be true but had they not already heard a similar story a few years ago, the police would have gone ahead and tried to blame everything on Cindy.
History
Apparently, it had already been reported that the mafia was using animals to transport drug money around the city and Cindy’s story seemed to match all of the previous reports. One agent looked at the other and said, “We’ve seen this before. In fact, we’ve got another one on our hands.”
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The other agent replied, “They must think they can outsmart us.” It seemed that Cindy keeping this illicit money was going to be completely overlooked if she decided to help the police catch the person responsible for the money.
Helping Her Case
And while Cindy was adamant that she was innocent, the police weren’t so sure. They pressured Cindy to take part in this heist and only after they had successfully caught the real criminal would they let her off the hook.
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Cindy’s own words of innocence weren’t enough though and it was only when a neighbour came forward and corroborated her story did the police finally start trusting Cindy. Though, the neighbour had a different version.
Neighbours
The neighbour who lived opposite Cindy confirmed that Tabby was let out every day and came back when Cindy called but she added that Tabby was always accompanied by a man who would always carry him right up to Cindy’s front door!
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And after asking for more details to help identify the man, the police started trusting Cindy more and more and were now certain that this wasn’t a once chance thing and bigger players were involved.
Worried About Tabby
After a few days of set-up, the police asked Cindy to let Tabby out one more time. The only difference as they would be outside watching the whole time. Not only that, the police decided to put a tracker on Tabby.
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Cindy was desperate to get her name out of this whole mess but worried about Tabby’s safety. The letter did specifically threaten him! What if the poor old cat got hurt in all of this? Cindy would never be able to forgive herself.
Covert Operation
But the police reassured her that Tabby would be safe and sound. And as for the criminals who hadn’t hurt the cat after using it to move money so many times, they weren’t likely to do it now. And so, with a heavy heart and feeling like she had no other choice – Cindy agreed.
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The young and desperate 25-year-old was ready for all this to be over and followed all of the police’s instructions. She let Tabby out as she usually did and the police watched from outside as a man, matching the description of a known criminal, picked up Tabby.
Following The Cat
The police followed the cat with GPS and found out that it was taken to the woods and after a few hours, the same man came and started walking towards Cindy’s door. The whole scene was exactly as the neighbour had described.
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But this time, as the alleged criminal let Tabby go, police came forward and apprehended the man. And just the fact that he tried to run away rather than explain himself made it obvious to them that something illegal was going on.
The Missing Link
The man did indeed belong to the mafia and the cat had been used to pay people off. In fact, they had used Tabby for years and were left shocked when it was put in a shelter and later adopted.
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Tabby was so good at transferring money that the mafia had sought out Tabby and decided to use the cat again but thanks to Cindy’s friend who reported her suspicions, all those involved were caught. And Cindy was left off the hook for keeping the money.
*This is a made-up story for entertainment purposes. The photos that have been used are Stockfoto’s.