Police arrest 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole Porsche and ran over its owner
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
The Amazon returns employee wasn't at work the day one of her colleagues at a California warehouse found a small, furry stowaway in a box mailed six days earlier from Utah.
But Brandy Hunter got the call anyway.
“Everyone knows I love cats,” she recalled. “I was not on shift but went to the facility with cat food and a carrier to see if I could help.”
When she got there April 16, the small calico had emerged from the 3-by-3-foot cardboard container. But the feline was frightened and wouldn't eat anything.
“She eventually warmed up to me and let me pet her,” Hunter said in her statement from Amazon. “I could tell she belonged to someone by the way she was behaving, so I took her home that night.”
Hunter planned to feed and cuddle the wee hitchhiker, she said. She also would take her the next day to a vet for an exam – and to check for a microchip that might hold the secret to her identity.
Meanwhile, some 630 miles away in Lehi, Utah, Carrie Stevens Clark had been eagerly searching for her lost cat, then missing for nearly a week, she told CNN. Galena, a 6-year-old indoor shorthair, tended to be quiet and often froze in uncomfortable situations.
She also loved boxes.
And Clark's family loved her.
They had prayed for her swift return, Clark said, even undertaking a one-day fast, a regular practice during challenging times within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
But still, no Galena.
Back in California, Hunter took her new foster to the vet. An exam revealed she was not injured, had a regular temperature and was only mildly dehydrated, the Amazon worker posted on Facebook.
The vet also made a key discovery: The cat was, in fact, microchipped.
Soon, another phone – in Lehi, Utah – was ringing.
Clark initially thought it was a prank, she said: The caller – in Jurupa Valley, California, west of Los Angeles – had found her lost cat. And the vet sent proof: all the information from Galena's microchip.
“I knew at that point she really had my cat,” Clark told CNN.
But how?
“We literally had emotions of laughing hysterically to crying hysterically,” she said. “They were so intense. It was just the strangest emotion feeling both of those at the same time.”
Galena, Clark soon learned, had been found in the Amazon return box.
That's when she put it all together.
“The box is Galena's absolute favourite place to play in, and she's pretty chill and happy when she's in a box,” Clark told CNN.
On April 10, Carrie, with her husband Matt Clark, had been packing up work boots to ship. “What happened was my husband had packed up the shoes, and he kept one pair and put the other five back in the box.”
Then, Matt closed the flaps of the box before leaving the room to get tape and scissors.
“Galena must have snuck into the box without him seeing and without us knowing, and then he came back and taped the box back up,” Carrie Clark said. “She loves to hide in boxes, so she was pretty happy in there. She didn't make any noise.”
UPS then ferried away the box, Amazon representative Alisa Carroll told CNN.
That's when, by Clark's estimation, a trio of “miracles” started kicking in.
One of the box's seams wasn't completely sealed, allowing Galena enough oxygen to breathe, Clark said. Also, the weather was perfectly stable – not too hot or too cold – so Galena did not freeze or get overheated.
And then she arrived in Jurupa Valley, where Hunter, who rescues cats as a side hustle, picked up her phone. She was “the only person at that warehouse who knew how to handle the situation” and recognized it was an accident and “wasn't malicious by any means,” Clark said.
Soon, the Clarks were on a plane.
“We were so nervous,” Clark said of the flight. “I was so anxious to see her and just get to her. That's the only thing I could think of was, 'I just want to get to my cat.'”
Still, “we didn't know what kind of shape she would be in,” she said.
Eight days after Galena was unwittingly packed up and two days after the warehouse discovery, Clark and her husband stepped into an exam room at the California vet's office.
Clark began to coo, as Hunter recorded video she later posted online.
“It's Mommy,” she said, her eyes locked on Galena, crouched on a blue exam table.
“Hi … Hi, my baby.”
“My darling,” Clark said, curling Galena into her chest and rocking back and forth.
“This is my baby.”
“This moment,” Hunter posted of the reunion, “was absolutely amazing (full of happy tears!!).”
Then, Galena – after days of being too scared to eat and still rapt with exhaustion and stressed to the point of shedding – let Clark feed her by hand.
For the whole 10-hour drive back to Utah, Clark stared at Galena as she slept. And soon, Clark said, her furry companion was back to her usual self.
“We're really pleased Brandy was able to help Galena reunite with her family,” Amazon's Carroll said.
Carrie and Matt Clark believe "miracles" went into Galena returning home to Utah. (Carrie Clark via CNN Newsource)
Galena will likely continue to be a massive box lover – hopefully without again taking off in one. And now, with their beloved cat back safe and sound, the Clarks want to emphasize the importance of microchips for pets.
“The main reason we were able to be reunited back with her again was because of her microchip, so we encourage all pet owners to microchip their pets,” she said. “It's a really, really easy procedure. It's just a tiny microchip that goes in the back of their shoulder blades.”
For Clark, though, the biggest takeaway runs much deeper.
“God's hand is in the details of our lives. Like, he's really the one who can control it all. And if he wants something to happen, he can easily make it happen,” she said. “And that's honestly my main purpose.”
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Advocates have identified the woman who died this week after being shot by police in Surrey, B.C., as a South American refugee who was raising a young daughter.
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.
What Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, says she hasn't done is make the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and wounded more than 2,000 in Lebanon this week.
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
Provincial police investigating the death of a cat that was allegedly set on fire in Orillia earlier this week released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case.
Getting a photograph of a rainbow? Common. Getting a photo of a lightning strike? Rare. Getting a photo of both at the same time? Extremely rare, but it happened to a Manitoba photographer this week.
An anonymous business owner paid off the mortgage for a New Brunswick not-for-profit.
They say a dog is a man’s best friend. In the case of Darren Cropper, from Bonfield, Ont., his three-year-old Siberian husky and golden retriever mix named Bear literally saved his life.
A growing group of brides and wedding photographers from across the province say they have been taken for tens of thousands of dollars by a Barrie, Ont. wedding photographer.
Paleontologists from the Royal B.C. Museum have uncovered "a trove of extraordinary fossils" high in the mountains of northern B.C., the museum announced Thursday.
The search for a missing ancient 28-year-old chocolate donkey ended with a tragic discovery Wednesday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is celebrating an important milestone in the organization's history: 50 years since the first women joined the force.
It's been a whirlwind of joyful events for a northern Ontario couple who just welcomed a baby into their family and won the $70 million Lotto Max jackpot last month.
A Good Samaritan in New Brunswick has replaced a man's stolen bottle cart so he can continue to collect cans and bottles in his Moncton neighbourhood.