The cat returned to its owner after it was mysteriously stolen by a taxi driver (5 photos)

On September 30, 23-year-old Austin, Texas resident Palash Pandey decided to take his black and white cat, Dachshund, to the vet. He called a taxi on the Lyft app, and he and Tux arrived safely at the clinic. However, when the man got out of the car and began to open the back door to get the baby carrier, the driver suddenly stepped on the gas and drove away. Pandey ran after the car, banging on the trunk and windows, but the taxi driver did not stop.





Shocked by what happened, the cat's owner began to write and call the taxi driver through a mobile application. The taxi driver responded only two hours later and said that there were no belongings left in his car and that there was no black and white cat. After this cryptic answer, Pandey called the rescue service and filed a report of the theft of the animal. The man then contacted Lyft customer service, where he was only told that if forgotten items were returned, they would charge customers $20 for the driver's time and effort.



A desperate Pandey decided to talk about what happened on social networks, hoping that users from Austin could help him. His X on X (formerly Twitter) has received more than ten million views and hundreds of comments. People tagged Lyft and local TV stations in their posts.





Following the uproar, Pandey received a call from a taxi driver who said that the police had contacted him. He explained to Pandey that he had left in a hurry due to an allergy to cat hair and that he would have canceled the order if he had known that the man was traveling with a cat. The driver also said that after ordering Pandi, he had many passengers, but none of them said anything about the cat.

A day later, Lyft founder David Risher made a statement on X (formerly Twitter). He acknowledged that the initial response from customer service was inadequate and said the company is actively involved in the situation and is doing everything possible to find out where the animal went missing. According to him, a photo of the cat was sent to all drivers of the service and the company organized its own search operation. Risher also asked to stop pursuing the taxi driver, who had received many threats and insults in less than 24 hours. At the same time, the man was suspended from work during the investigation.



On Sunday afternoon, one of the participants in the search operation reported that he had found a black and white cat near the office of a real estate company a few kilometers from the veterinary clinic. There was no carrier nearby. The dachshund was caught and returned to its owner.

A happy Pandey told followers that Tux was completely fine and that the help he received from social media users had renewed his faith in humanity. Police and Lyft management are continuing their investigation to find out what exactly happened to Tax.