NORTH OLMSTED, Ohio — Earlier this month, a North Olmsted police officer arrested a man and a woman after he responded to a motel and found four kittens inside a plastic tote with a lid on it locked inside a vehicle.
It happened on Aug. 21 at a motel in the 22900 block of Lorain Road, according to the police report.
Upon arriving, the officer met with the caller who showed him the vehicle. The officer wrote that he heard the kittens "meowing loudly and in distress." The tote was in the vehicle's driver's seat with a laundry basket on top.
The officer estimated the temperature inside the vehicle to be around 125 to 128 degrees inside.
The officer used a Lock-Out kit to enter the vehicle and rescue the four kittens, the report said. The kittens appeared to be about two weeks old. The caller told the officer she saw the man earlier with a fifth kitten that appeared dead but she wasn't sure what he did with it.
A short time later, the man and woman walked back to the area, and the woman approached the car while the man kept walking. Police caught up with the man and took him into custody. He was also wanted on several active warrants. Police returned to the vehicle and took the woman into custody.
According to the report, the man told police they put the kittens in a tote inside the car, "so they could walk to Burger King."
Both were charged with cruelty to animals, a first-degree misdemeanor, the report said. Both were transported to the North Olmsted City Jail and have a court appearance on Tuesday.
One of the kittens found inside the car later died, police said. The three surviving kittens were all adopted by dispatchers at the North Olmsted Police Department.
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