| This week I read a story out of
North Kingstown, Rhode Island that at first shocked me, then I felt bad
for the woman involved, and finally I just had to laugh.
Allegedly a forty seven year old man, in need of some money went to his
mother for assistance. But instead of just asking for a few bucks
like you or I would do, what this fine gentleman did was kidnap his
mother’s cat and extort money from her in exchange for a promise not to
kill the cat. Of course this is all alleged until the trial takes
place. The story is terrible on many levels. The poor woman, whom I believe was in her mid-seventies, was probably dreadfully scared for the health of her cat. And the cat too, was taken from its own home on a number of occasions and used for a ransom. I hear this is fairly traumatic for the feline species. What kills me is this…the mother actually paid her son the extortion money with personal checks! All the police had to do was contact the woman who showed them the cancelled checks. Still no word on what it said in the “memo” section of the checks but I would think it said something like “Save Mittens” or “Extortion to Son”. Apparently this has been going on for almost a year and the son actually received over fifteen thousand dollars from his mother in return for the safety of her beloved cat. The length of this ordeal makes me question the level of intelligence of both the mother and the cat. Why didn’t the mother hide the cat so the son couldn’t abduct it? And why on Earth would the cat stick around after it saw the son enter the house. For example, my cats scatter in every direction when I enter the house because they know as soon as I take of my shoes and socks something will be flying in their direction. Shouldn’t a cat that’s been kidnapped ten or twenty times have a sense of danger when sonny boy pulls into the driveway? Some people think this gentleman is a horrible human being…a monster even. I’d like to remind you that the mom may be just a little to blame. If one of my kids abducted my dog and held it for ransom two things would happen. First the dog would eat their furniture, magazines, shoes, leftovers and anything else left around the house and then put on a display of flatulence that can only be described as K-9 napalm. After my dog had destroyed the house and I received a call or letter demanding ransom I would simply say “go ahead, keep it”. This is what the mom in this story should have done the FIRST time her son tried to extort money from her. If he was unsuccessful the first time then this wouldn’t have carried on for almost a year. Now that I think about it, maybe this guy had the right idea. My mom has a cat too but I think if I were to grab something even more valuable to her I could demand a higher ransom. For example, maybe I can somehow sneak away with her prescription for nasal spray. She doesn’t need it, she’s addicted to it. I bet I could supplement my income enough to get a second house and at the same time I would be helping my mom kick her habit. Of course Christmas dinner at her house might be a little uncomfortable but I’d get over it.
|
uuu
| uuu |
uuu
