Deputies find 20 cats in stolen truck after AirTag tracks down vehicle in Tacoma

An AirTag led Pierce County Sheriff’s Deputies to a stolen truck — and 20 cats — in Tacoma on Wednesday evening.

The truck was stolen near East McKinley Avenue and 104th Street East on Wednesday. Deputies located the vehicle near 72nd and South Hosmer Street and arrested the man and woman inside.

“The female had mentioned her cats were in the car,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Detective Josh Mills told KIRO Newsradio. “The deputies asked her, ‘Well, how many cats?’ And she said she wasn’t actually very sure.”

It turned out there were 20: eight adult cats and 12 kittens. They were penned in a makeshift cage in the back of the truck.

“The cats seemed a little bit emaciated,” he said. “Some of their eyes were cloudy. It seemed like they were kind of unhealthy.”

The woman was giving them food and water, Mills said.

“For lack of a better word, they were trying to care for them,” he said.

20 more cats push Tacoma shelter past its limits

Animal control removed the cats from the vehicle and took them to the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County. The influx is pushing the shelter to its limits.

“With this group of 20, we now have over 190 cats in the shelter and an additional 230 cats in foster,” the Humane Society wrote in a Facebook post Thursday.

The cats removed from the vehicle have been exposed to ringworm, the post said.

“Not only does this push us far beyond our shelter’s capacity for cats, but it also adds time-intensive treatment for ringworm onto our veterinary team, who are already managing the medical care for all of the animals in the shelter,” the post stated. “At this time, we are in urgent need of fosters who can take in cats who have been exposed to ringworm.”

Better for ringworm to be treated in home than shelter

The Humane Society said it is better for cats to be treated for ringworm in a home rather than in a shelter.

“The shelter environment can be stressful for cats, and stress weakens their immune systems, which makes developing secondary illnesses more likely and slows down recovery time,” the post said. “In a foster home, cats are calmer, less stressed, and get more one-on-one care, which means their healing is often much faster!”

Ringworm is not actually a worm, but instead a common fungal infection that causes a ring-shaped, itchy rash.

For information on fostering a cat, click here.

This incident happened just days after dozens of cats were discovered on a sailboat in Tacoma. The two cases are unrelated, Mills said.

Frank Lenzi is the News Director for KIRO Newsradio. Read more of his stories here.

Follow @FrankLenziKIRO