Bronx Woman Grieves Loss of Cat Following Tragic Accident

A Bronx resident is mourning the loss of her cat after a tragic incident involving a self-cleaning trash can.

Stephanie Gomez began to feel anxious as she exited the elevator at her Williamsbridge apartment and heard one of her cats, named Sebastian, crying out from the hallway.

Upon entering her home, she discovered that something was terribly wrong.

“I turned on the light… I saw a cat being crushed by a machine,” a distraught Gomez, 35, recalled the event from January 27. “It was making a horrific noise.”

According to Gomez, the machine is designed to automatically halt when it detects something inside. However, she stated that it didn’t stop and continued to try to close on her cat.

In a $3 million lawsuit filed in the Bronx Supreme Court, Gomez mentioned that the lifeless body was cold when she found it, with its back legs trapped inside the machine.

“It was totally devastating,” she shared. “I fell.”

Gomez quickly sought assistance from a friend. “Stefannie was very desperate, very upset and crying,” the friend noted, recalling the scene and the traumatic discovery of Sarabi’s mangled body.

The trash can, which costs around $200, was a Christmas gift from Gomez’s mother. It was promoted as a device that keeps the lid partially open, preventing pets from being fully enclosed.

Gomez and her lawyer claim the product’s safety mechanism failed, leading to Sarabi’s “long and painful death.”

That night, Gomez’s friend found an Amazon review criticizing the Autoscooper 11, which claimed the device “nearly killed a cat,” although this review was later removed.

After Sarabi’s passing, Gomez’s mother received a handwritten letter from the CEO of Petpivot, Poppy Xie, addressing the incident.

Gomez and her friend argue that the company’s offer of $10,000 seems like an attempt to quietly settle or hide claims about a serious flaw in the product.

Gomez described Sarabi, who weighed under 10 pounds, as “the sweetest little thing.” She fondly remembered her as a friendly and chatty cat who wouldn’t leave food unattended. “There’s not a day that goes by without me missing her,” Gomez said.

She had rescued Sarabi over a year earlier, after hearing her cries outside a laundromat on a rainy night.

Sebastian, the other cat, was also deeply affected by the loss. “To this day, Sebastian will sleep where the Autoscooper killed Sarabi,” Gomez noted in the lawsuit.

“We’ll never trust an automated machine again,” she declared. “I don’t want this happening to anyone else.”

As of now, Amazon and Petpivot have not responded to requests for comment.

Peggy Collen, the attorney representing Gomez, pointed out that the device is still available for purchase and continues to be marketed as safe.

“Sarabi’s death was not an accident,” she stressed. “If this could happen to Sarabi, it can happen to any cat.”