INDIANAPOLIS (WTHR) - A family's pet cat is being called a hero for doing something that caught even his owner off-guard.
"Binky" stopped a burglar climbing in a window at home.
That would-be burglar showed up at a house on Finley Avenue around midnight determined to get in. But the family cat had something else in mind.
"I was shocked the first time he started growling," said Cynthia Kootz, Binky's owner.
Kootz now holds onto her cat when certain company comes by. However, the same cat loves children and even plays with relatives he knows.
It turns out that Binky ended up saving the day when he heard a noise in the backyard near the garage around midnight. Cynthia immediately asked her boyfriend about the noise, but they eventually dismissed it.
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"I went outside, didn't see anything, so I shut the light off and shut the garage," said Kootz.
A few minutes later, a man started banging on Cynthia's front patio window. He tried to convince her to let him in and even offered to show her his identification.
"He was beating and kicking," said Kootz, "trying to tell me there were men trying to shoot and kill him and you got to let me in."
For her own safety, Cynthia refused and she says the man decided the window was his next move, which ended up costing him dearly.
"The next thing I knew, his hand went through that thing and then Binky went after him," said Kootz.
Binky launched a second attack when he tried yet a second time to get in the same window. Binky has no claws, so he used his teeth on the intruder.
"Binky blew up like a balloon and got him again," said Kootz.
As Binky attacked the burglary suspect, Kootz was on the phone calling 911. She was put on hold for a few moments, but eventually got to speak with a dispatcher who sent officers to the house. The officers arrived just as the burglar decided Binky was too much for him and ran from the window right into the police.
IMPD officers took Earl Scruggs into custody based on the description Cynthia gave to dispatchers. The officers noticed right away that Scruggs was bleeding pretty bad and asked what happened. The 41-year-old explained that a cat in the house attacked him.
It was hard for the officers to believe his story, so they verified it with Kootz, who was also shocked about the attack, but thankful.
Police arrested Scruggs for vandalism to the window and residential entry.
Officers had to call paramedics to treat the suspect for his wounds from Binky.
"He ain't got no claws. He can only bite and he got some pretty sharp fangs," Kootz said.
Based on jail records, this is not Scruggs first time in trouble with the law - but it's likely the first time he was brought down by a cat.
