I just got a phone call, at around 1130pm Sunday night.
Backstory~ my cat Baby got out somehow yesterday morning while hubby and I ran a couple errands. I posted about this in the Cat SOS section so I won't really detail it here.
Since he went missing I have posted fliers around my entire neighborhood, hung a huge poster on my car in my driveway, made posters on stakes to go out on the roadway, canvassed the neighborhood talking to neighbors etc. I also posted on petfbi, petfinder and craigslist all in the classifieds about pets or lost animals, with a picture of my cat.
I put my phone number on the craigslist ad. I shouldn't have but I thought that if someone saw him and went on craigslist to look if he was advertised as missing they could call me right away vs emailing.
Well tonight at 1130 I get a phone call. Here is how it went.
Them: Hi I saw your ad for a missing cat on craigslist and I think I found your cat.
Me (getting so excited) : Really? Where did you find him? Is he there now?
Them: Well I think it's him. Does he have a collar because I am not sure this one did.
Me: No he didn't have a collar
Them: Okay I wasn't sure if it fell off or something. The cat I saw looked like the picture on your ad.
Me: Oh so is he not there now?? Is it tail long white and fluffy?
Them: I am not sure, I can't tell.
Me: Oh, if he is there can you look and tell me?
Them: Well here is the thing, the cat was digging through my neighbors trash and my neighbor hit it with a shovel and the cat is meowing and crying and I can't tell how bad it is hurt and I don't want to look at it but I think it was your cat.
Me: Is this supposed to be some kind of sick joke? You cannot be seriously telling me this.
Them: Why would I call you and joke about something like that? But anyway, your ad mentioned a reward so I wanted to get that reward. Hello? I want to collect the reward since I found the cat.
At that point I was bawling and hung up on them. I am still shaking and it's been 30 minutes since the call. I got up and shut my curtains and turned my alarm on because it creeped me out so bad. I got on Craigslist and someone else had posted to not answer calls from that number because they are calling saying that they killed peoples pets. I can't believe people like this exist in the world. I can't stop shaking and crying. I just can't believe that someone would call random poeple and do this. It makes me so sick to my stomach.
Apparently this person used Google Voice, which is a service you can sign up for to use a supposedly non traceable number to call. I can't even call the number back so I can't find out who did it. My husband got online and send a complaint to google voice with the date/time/nature of the call telling them that it is ridiculous that their service allows people to do things like this. I don't know if the complaint will go anywhere, but at least we made one.
Basically, if you get a call from this number 760-705-8888, it is a google voice call. And if you have any lost pet ads, you might just have someone trying to wreck your emotions. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to warn others so they don't have to go through this as well.
Backstory~ my cat Baby got out somehow yesterday morning while hubby and I ran a couple errands. I posted about this in the Cat SOS section so I won't really detail it here.
Since he went missing I have posted fliers around my entire neighborhood, hung a huge poster on my car in my driveway, made posters on stakes to go out on the roadway, canvassed the neighborhood talking to neighbors etc. I also posted on petfbi, petfinder and craigslist all in the classifieds about pets or lost animals, with a picture of my cat.
I put my phone number on the craigslist ad. I shouldn't have but I thought that if someone saw him and went on craigslist to look if he was advertised as missing they could call me right away vs emailing.
Well tonight at 1130 I get a phone call. Here is how it went.
Them: Hi I saw your ad for a missing cat on craigslist and I think I found your cat.
Me (getting so excited) : Really? Where did you find him? Is he there now?
Them: Well I think it's him. Does he have a collar because I am not sure this one did.
Me: No he didn't have a collar
Them: Okay I wasn't sure if it fell off or something. The cat I saw looked like the picture on your ad.
Me: Oh so is he not there now?? Is it tail long white and fluffy?
Them: I am not sure, I can't tell.
Me: Oh, if he is there can you look and tell me?
Them: Well here is the thing, the cat was digging through my neighbors trash and my neighbor hit it with a shovel and the cat is meowing and crying and I can't tell how bad it is hurt and I don't want to look at it but I think it was your cat.
Me: Is this supposed to be some kind of sick joke? You cannot be seriously telling me this.
Them: Why would I call you and joke about something like that? But anyway, your ad mentioned a reward so I wanted to get that reward. Hello? I want to collect the reward since I found the cat.
At that point I was bawling and hung up on them. I am still shaking and it's been 30 minutes since the call. I got up and shut my curtains and turned my alarm on because it creeped me out so bad. I got on Craigslist and someone else had posted to not answer calls from that number because they are calling saying that they killed peoples pets. I can't believe people like this exist in the world. I can't stop shaking and crying. I just can't believe that someone would call random poeple and do this. It makes me so sick to my stomach.
Apparently this person used Google Voice, which is a service you can sign up for to use a supposedly non traceable number to call. I can't even call the number back so I can't find out who did it. My husband got online and send a complaint to google voice with the date/time/nature of the call telling them that it is ridiculous that their service allows people to do things like this. I don't know if the complaint will go anywhere, but at least we made one.
Basically, if you get a call from this number 760-705-8888, it is a google voice call. And if you have any lost pet ads, you might just have someone trying to wreck your emotions. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to warn others so they don't have to go through this as well.