THE CAT THIEF-- in San Antonio, Texas

THE CAT THIEF-- in San Antonio, Texas

This is too funny! This could only be true, you can't make this stuff up.

(Dillard's is a posh department store)


Clutching their Dillard's shopping bags, Ellen and Kay woefully gazed down

at a dead cat in the mall parking lot. Obviously a recent hit --- no
flies, no smell.

" What business could that poor kitty have had here?" murmured Ellen.

"Come on, Ellen, let's just go..." But Ellen had already grabbed her
shopping bag and was explaining,"I'll just put my things in your bag, and
then I'll take the tissue." She dumped her purchases into Kay's bag and
then used the tissue paper to cradle and lower the former feline into her
own Dillard's bag and cover it.

They continued the short trek to the car in silence, stashing their Goods
in the trunk. But it occurred to both of them that if they left Ellen's
burial bag in the trunk, warmed by the Texas sunshine while they ate, Kay's
Lumina would soon lose that new-car smell.

They decided to leave the bag on top of the trunk, and they headed over to
Luby's Cafeteria.

After they cleared the serving line and sat down at a window table, they
had a view of Kay's Chevy with the Dillard's bag still on the trunk. BUT
not for long. As they ate, they noticed a black-haired woman in a red
gingham shirt stroll by their car, look quickly this way and that, and then
hook the Dillard's bag without breaking stride.

She quickly walked out of their line of vision. Kay and Ellen shot each
other a wide-eyed look of amazement. It all happened so fast that either
of them could think how to respond. "Can you imagine?" finally sputtered
Ellen.

"The nerve of that woman" Kay sympathized with Ellen, but inwardly a laugh
was building as she thought about the grand surprise awaiting the
red-gingham thief.

Just when she thought she'd have to giggle into her napkin, she noticed
Ellen's eyes freeze in the direction of the serving line. Following her
gaze, Kay recognized with a shock the black-haired woman with the Dillard's
bag, THE Dillard's bag, hanging from her arm, brazenly pushing her tray
toward the cashier.

Helplessly, they watched the scene unfold: After clearing the register, the
woman settled at a table across from theirs, put the bag on an empty chair
and began to eat. After a few bites of baked whitefish and green beans,
she casually lifted the bag into her lap to survey her treasure. Looking
from side to side, but not far enough to notice her rapt audience three
tables over, she pulled out the tissue paper and peered into the bag. Her
eyes widened, and she began to make a sort of gasping noise. The noise
grew. The bag slid from her lap as she sank to the floor, wheezing and
clutching her upper chest.

The beverage cart attendant quickly recognized a customer in trouble and
sent the busboy to call 911, while she administered the Heimlich maneuver.
A crowd quickly gathered that did not include Ellen and Kay, who remained
riveted to their chairs for seven whole minutes until the ambulance
arrived.

In a matter of minutes the curly-haired woman emerged from the crowd, still
gasping, strapped securely on a gurney. Two well-trained EMS volunteers
steered her to the waiting ambulance, while a third scooped up her
belongings.

The last they saw of the distressed cat-burglar, she disappeared behind the
ambulance doors, the Dillard's bag perched on her stomach.

My mom always taught me if it doesn't belong to you don't touch it. Guess
she didn't have a wise mom like I do. Serves her right!


Happy Trails!