Police Find 911 Call Was No Cat-Astrophe

At 4 a.m., 911 dispatchers got a call from Doretta Garrigus’ apartment. But the caller didn’t say anything. The dispatcher heard only the continuing beeps of buttons being pushed on a touchtone phone, said police spokesman Todd DeAngelis.

Because Garrigus’ receiver remained off the hook, the dispatcher sent police to investigate.

When police knocked on her door, Garrigus said, “I came out in my nightgown. I didn’t know what was going on.”

That’s when Sgt. Fred Lloyd found some of Garrigus’ five kittens and the mother cat, Mommy, still at the scene of the crime. They were lying on the phone, which Garrigus, 88, keeps on her kitchen table. The receiver lay on the floor.

“They had to do it. There’s nobody else around here but me,” Garrigus said. The cats had no comment.