In Kirkland, Washington, a routine police call unexpectedly turned into a scene from a wildlife comedy.
A resident of the Moss Bay neighborhood heard a loud crash in the house and decided a burglar had broken in. He called 911, and police arrived to check the premises.
They looked up at the stairs — and there it sat a lynx.
It didn't run.
It didn't hide.
It just perched at the top with an air as if the owners were the ones intruding on its home.
Operation "cat burglar"
The officers decided not to approach the uninvited guest and sent in a drone.
In the end, high-tech police equipment was used to keep an eye on a cat.
A very big cat.
With the drone's help, they managed to steer the lynx into an empty room, where it calmly waited for wildlife specialists.
If you imagine the exchanges, they might have gone something like this:
Police: "Suspect located."
Dispatcher: "Armed?"
Police: "With claws."
Dispatcher: "Understood. Sending specialists."
But how did it even get in there?
Investigators concluded that the lynx most likely climbed a tree and jumped through an open window.
Moreover, it may have had a very specific goal.
An ordinary domestic cat lived in the house, and specialists suspect that the lynx might have been chasing it.
This turns out to be a rather humiliating situation for the household pet:
you sit calmly in your own home — and suddenly a relative in the weight class of "professional predator" comes through the window.
Fortunately, the cat was later found completely unharmed.
The burglar was released into the forest
Specialists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife sedated the lynx and moved it away from the residential area — to a natural zone near Forbes Creek.
Neither people nor animals were harmed.
And the police received, perhaps, one of the best calls of the year.
A man reported a possible burglar.
The burglar was indeed in the house.
It got in through the window.
It had to be tracked down with the help of a drone.
But it didn't manage to steal anything.
Although it may have been eyeing the house cat very closely.
So the expression cat burglar — "cat burglar" can now be taken quite literally in Kirkland. 😄
