Yokohama man arrested after neighbor’s cat kidnapped, found 70 km away

YOKOHAMA — A 38-year-old local man here was arrested on Sept. 10 on suspicion of property damage for allegedly grabbing a neighbor’s cat and depositing it some 70 kilometers away.

Masashi Fukada is accused of catching Tama, a 2-year, 11-month-old male cat belonging to a neighbor in his 60s, at about 4:50 a.m. on April 15 this year and dropping him off at another location. Fukada has reportedly denied the allegation.

According to Tsuzuki Police Station, Tama would go outside at about 8 p.m. every night and return in the morning. Tensions rose between Fukada and Tama’s owner when Fukada complained that the cat was “willfully” walking through his property. Tama’s owner called the police on April 18 when Tama failed to return home for several days.

Tama was found by a man in his 80s on April 21 in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, some 70 kilometers from his home in Yokohama’s Tsuzuki Ward. He was taken to an animal hospital, where a check of the cat’s ID microchip confirmed where he came from. Tama was returned to his owner unharmed on April 30.

Fukada was arrested after he was seen on security camera footage taken near the cat’s owner’s home, and he was logged driving onto an expressway heading in the Shizuoka direction.

(Japanese original by Mayu Miyamoto, Yokohama Bureau)