Eight cats found purposely locked inside storage unit
A faint meow coming from inside the storage unit caught Lora Mattal’s attention.
“I tried to figure out where it was coming from and I dialed it in to right here, Unit B049,” she told KESQ News Channel 3’s and CBS Local 2’s Katie Widner.
It was June 7– a day when temperatures in Palm Springs reached a high of 102 degrees– that she heard it the first time. She said she alerted management at StorAmerica Self Storage who told they had called the unit tenant. Then three days passed. Finally, Mattal decided to take matters into her own hands.
“I went to my unit and I got my bolt cutters. The lock is right there,” she said pointing to one on the ground. “I open the door and there (were) nine cats locked in cages. One of them was dead and his foot was stuck in the cage because he had been trying to get out.”
Through tears, Mattal said she thinks that had management been faster in responding to her claim, the cat would have been saved. A sign posted to the unit’s door showed animal control had taken the surviving cats. It notes they were found without water and that they were matted.
The Palm Springs Police Department said a criminal investigation is ongoing and no charges have been filed against the person who is renting the locker. Over the phone, a manager at StorAmerica said he had been given a notice to vacate.
A representative at the Palm Springs Animal Shelter, where the cats were taken, said the surviving cats are all doing well. The person could not elaborate further due to the pending investigation.
