Santa Ana Police Department
UPDATE
12:36 PM PT— KTLA reports Alejandro Acosta Oliveros has been released on bail.
A suspected serial cat-killer was busted in Southern California this week for animal cruelty after he was caught on video trying to grab a cat, cops say.
Footage shared by the Santa Ana Police Department on Wednesday allegedly shows 45-year-old Alejandro Acosta Oliveros scooping up a cat between two cars in Orange County — and his arrest follows several reports of cats being abused and killed.
Cops say Oliveros was positively ID’d by multiple victims and witnesses, and he was charged after officers found evidence of the crimes at his Santa Ana home.
Detectives haven’t said how many cats Oliveros allegedly killed, but they believe the number is high. The L.A. Times reports more than a dozen cats have been harmed.
Orange County locals have been posting for weeks about missing cats, warning others about a cat-napper caught on camera luring and snatching pets from their homes.
One disturbing post on Nextdoor, according to KTLA, read, “My neighbor’s cat was killed by a man who injected it with some sort of substance.” Another person claimed their camera captured a man grabbing a neighborhood cat, tying its legs, and taking off with it.
A March 21 surveillance video also shows the moment a man, believed to be Oliveros, snatched Clubber, a 10-month-old Bengal Lynx cat. Luckily, Clubber was later returned home.
Oliveros was booked into Santa Ana Jail on felony animal cruelty charges.
