Missing Cat, Unwanted Calls
A couple from Canada is experiencing a surge of phone calls related to a missing cat, despite the fact they don’t own such a pet. Jonathan McCurrach and Natasha Lavoie, have found their phone numbers printed on t-shirts advertising a lost cat 3,000 miles away on Long Island.
They’ve been consistently receiving calls from strangers looking to report the discovery of a cat named Torbo, which, interestingly, they don’t possess. Their actual pet is named Moser, who is comfortably at home.
Lavoie mentioned, “Sometimes, like six times a day, I make these really random calls and people find my cat and leave me a voicemail saying they want money for my cat.”
“I’m like, ‘My cat is at home with air conditioning,’” she adds with a hint of exasperation.
Initially, they thought the calls—which mostly came from outside Canada—were scams. McCurrach shared, “When you actually started making calls or responding to voicemails, I figured it was a scam attempt. You hear about those scams regarding missing pets.”
He noted that often callers would be quick to demand money, leaving him to clarify he didn’t have any cat, nor cash to offer. Many would simply hang up.
After a long stretch of unsolicited calls, McCurrach eventually inquired how they obtained their number. The response was that their numbers were on t-shirts made by a clothing line from Smithtown, New York, named Wisdumb.
When approached by media, the company confirmed that the shirts were no longer available and stated that incorporating the phone numbers in their design was not intentional.
The couple echoed similar sentiments in their discussion but noted that they received no genuine apology from the company.
Lavoie is reluctant to change her phone number, emphasizing, “I’ve had my number for 20 years. I don’t want to change that. I just try not to keep answering.”
She feels that they, perhaps, deserve some form of compensation for the hassle caused by the mishap. “After this, I feel like I deserve a T-shirt,” she quipped, laughing a little. “I think we both do.”
