Catnapped and held for ransom!

A pedigree cat was held to ransom for £5,000 by a gang of Eastern Europeans after it went missing from its home.

Maggie, a one-year-old British shorthair blue, was only returned when her owners agreed to a ransom exchanged via a ‘slick operation’ involving at least four catnappers in two pub car parks.

Owners Nigel Meadows, 62, and Carol MacArthur, 63, were ‘devastated’ when Maggie disappeared from their £1.5million home in Kensington, South West London.

The timid house cat was thought to have slipped outside when Mr Meadows returned home with the shopping on June 4.

They put fliers around the area offering a £50 reward for information or her return, but two days later they received a ‘chilling’ call from a man using a withheld number telling them she would be returned for £5,000.

Miss MacArthur’s brother Malcolm, 57, took the call on June 6 and tried to pass the menacing caller on to the cat’s owners, only to be told: ‘No no, I talk only to you.’

Believing it might be a hoax, the couple called the police, who said no officer would be free to attend for two days.

Miss MacArthur said: ‘When we first spoke to the police, we weren’t sure whether to take the call seriously.

‘It was only after the gang rang again that we began to take it more seriously.’

Her brother, a building project manager, said the catnapper was soon back in touch to arrange details, adding: ‘He rang three times during the day. I was able to haggle him down to £2,000. He had an Eastern European accent and was very calm. It sounded scripted. I was very shaken afterwards.’

Mr MacArthur decided not to call the police again, and took matters into his own hands, agreeing to meet the catnappers at a pub car park in Brentwood, Essex, to collect Maggie, while a friend handed over the money at another car park nearby.

He said: ‘It was slickly organised. At 3pm, I went to a pub car park where a woman in her thirties and two guys in their twenties were sitting on a picnic bench.

‘It was a busy, sunny afternoon and, quite calmly, they handed me a cardboard pet box. I glanced inside and saw it was Maggie.

‘They were strangely well-mannered, which seemed to make it all the more intimidating.’

Having recognised Maggie, Mr MacArthur had to phone his friend to release ransom in cash to another member of the gang.

He added: ‘My friend told me there was a guy in his forties speaking Romanian to friends, who eventually agreed to take £1,500. When I got back to my car, Maggie leapt out and hid behind the seat. She seemed terrified.’

Miss MacArthur, a literary agent, said last night: ‘Maggie hasn’t been the same since – she wasn’t given enough food and now just hides behind the washing machine. She used to be so boisterous and playful.

‘She’s in a terrible state. It’s appalling. They must have thought it was the right kind of area to target, being Kensington.

‘There are elderly women up this road with beloved cats – they are vulnerable and who knows what they’d be coerced into paying if theirs were taken.

‘Maggie is a house cat, so she wouldn’t stray further than the garden. I don’t think this is opportunistic – I think it was planned. Who knows how many other people they are doing this to.’

Mr Meadows, a retired community safety officer, added: ‘We were so shocked by the whole thing. It frightened me. At the moment it’s a pet, but who’s to say it couldn’t be a child?

‘People were offering £5,000 on some of the websites I looked at for their lost pedigree cats, so no wonder thieves are interested.’

Culled