Couple hounded with calls after their number is listed on t-shirt decorated with missing cat poster
A Canadian couple is being hounded with calls about their missing cat — and all because their number was splashed across a t-shirt decorated with a poster of a lost cat by a brand 3,000 miles away on Long Island.
Jonathan McCurrach and Natasha Lavoie's phone has been on fire with strangers calling to tell them they've found their feline, Torbo.
However, the British Columbian couple doesn't even have a cat named Torbo. Their furry friend is Mauser, and he's happily chilling at home.
'Sometimes, like six times a day, I'm getting these really random phone calls and people leaving me voicemails saying that they found my cat and they want money for my cat,' Lavoie told CBC News.
The contemporary clothing company, Wisdumb, based in Smithtown, NY, made the missing cat t-shirt.
CBC News
'I'm like, 'My cat's at home in the air conditioning.''
At first, the pair first thought the calls, which mainly came from the U.S., were scams.
'When we started actually picking up the calls or responding to the voicemails, I thought it was some attempt at a scam. You hear about scams all the time about missing pets,' McCurrach told the outlet.
'Half the time, they just cut you off and go like, 'No, I've got your cat. I want the money for the cat.' And I'm like, 'No, there's no money, there's no cat.' And they usually hang up.'
After months of their phone ringing off the hook, McCurrach finally asked a caller how they got their number.
The caller explained their digits were printed on the t-shirt, made by the contemporary clothing company Wisdumb, based in Smithtown, NY.
CBC News reached out the business, which reported the shirt was no longer available for purchase online, and said in an email that 'the use of a real number within the art created was not intentional.'
The couple also contacted the company, which offered them a similar answer, but no 'real apology.'
Natasha Lavoie and Jonathan McCurrach didn't receive a 'real apology' from the company.
CBC News
Lavoie said she's not ready to change her number because it has a 604 area code, British Columbia's first, which is now difficult to get.
'I've had my number for 20 years,' she told the outlet firmly.
'I don't want to change it. I'll just keep not answering.'
Lavoie thinks purr-haps she deserves compensation for the aggravation the clothing has caused.
'I feel like I deserve a T-shirt after this,' she added. 'I think we both do.'
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Hamilton Spectator
4 minutes ago
- Hamilton Spectator
This woman claims Air Canada discriminated against her in a case of ‘flying while Black.' Now her human rights complaint could set a precedent
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They should be secure in the knowledge that if airlines discriminate against them, they have the right to damages.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
A Cultural Wind Blows Through Canada This August: Strengthening Korea–Canada Friendship Through Theatre and Art
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
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From killings to rape, the heinous crimes that could get you less jail time than a Freedom Convoy organizer
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Stabbing a man to death because he told you to stop abusing your girlfriend Under Canadian law, a convicted murderer has to spend at least 10 years in jail; that's the mandatory minimum sentence for second-degree murder. Nevertheless, it's common to see cases in which a killer receives only a few years in jail simply because the homicide they committed is prosecuted as manslaughter. In 2018, 26-year-old Abeal Negussie Abera received fatal stab wounds in Downtown Vancouver after he attempted to intervene between a man yelling at his common-law spouse. 'Yo, bro, she's just a girl. You don't have to treat her like that, calm down,' Abera reportedly said just before Benny Rae Armstrong plunged a blade into his chest. At a hearing last month, Crown prosecutors sought a five-year jail term for Armstrong. Being a police officer who stalks and sexually harasses crime victims Edmonton Police constable Hunter Robinz was convicted earlier this year not just for sex crimes, but for sex crimes against vulnerable women he would track down using his status as a police officer — sometimes forcing himself on the women while in uniform. In one instance, Robinz returned a distressed and intoxicated woman to her apartment, only to spend two hours attempting to kiss her while ignoring calls from his police radio. The Crown sought two to three years for Robinz, but in May a sentencing judge opted instead for six months. Amassing enough child pornography to fill a video store Joshua Stairs's child pornography collection was tallied up by police as containing 7,170 videos and 1,148 images. At trial, Judge Johanne Lafrance-Cardinal said the images were so graphic, violent and disturbing that she occasionally urged lawyers not to detail their contents so as to spare court staff members. The ages of the victims depicted in the images ranged from four to 12. The Crown sought three to three-and-a-half years for Stairs, and he was sentenced to two. Torturing a toddler to death It's not unusual that the killing of a baby or toddler will yield a sentence of only a few years, particularly if the killer is the child's parents. But there were some aggravating factors in the death of Gabriel Sinclair-Pasqua, an 18-month-old who died in 2021. Sinclair-Pasqua's last days were spent in extreme pain after a scalding caused him to suffer burns across a third of his body. His parents not only refused to seek medical care, but in text exchanges they referred to the emaciated and screaming child as 'a paycheque.' The Crown would end up seeking the exact same sentence for the parents as that being sought for Barber: eight years in jail. Shooting at police In the summer of 2023 Siavash Ahmadi was pulled over by West Vancouver Police for suspected impaired driving. When instructed to retrieve his licence, Ahmadi instead reached into a bag of loaded guns, retrieved a pistol and fired at two officers from a distance of just two metres. Admadi didn't hit anyone, and neither did the officers when they returned fire. At trial last November, the Crown sought a sentence of seven years. Ahmadi ultimately received just four years, in addition to a $1,000 fine for impaired driving. Intentionally ramming a car loaded with children and pregnant women Michael Augustine, 60, pled guilty to a 2022 incident in which he used his truck to intentionally ram a minivan carrying his step-daughter, whom he had just threatened to kill. The minivan, which was carrying a total of four children and two pregnant women, rolled multiple times before coming to a stop in the woods, 83 metres from the road. Miraculously, nobody was killed, despite one of the children being ejected from the crash. Despite Augustine's long history of violent criminal convictions, the Crown sought eight years, and Augustine was ultimately sentenced to five. Beating a fellow homeless shelter resident to death While staying at an Edmonton homeless shelter, Stanley Jago attacked a confused fellow resident who had been returning from the bathroom, beating the man so badly that he suffered a fatal seizure. In the court proceedings that followed, Jago gained a reputation for unstable behaviour, such as threatening court participants or attempting to attack sheriffs. Jago was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to five years — just slightly less than the five-and-a-half years the Crown had been seeking. Raping a minor and bragging about it online In arguing that 56-year-old Prakash Lekhraj didn't feel any remorse for raping a teenaged girl, the Crown would only have needed to point to Lehkraj's testimony that 'he never needs to seek the consent of a female to have sexual relations with her.' Lehkraj was convicted of both sexual assault and the production of child pornography for an August 2020 assault in which he photographed himself raping a minor before uploading the images to an online group chat. The victim 'took it like a champ,' wrote Lekhraj. The Crown sought a sentence of four to five years, but a judge went with three years and three months. IN OTHER NEWSAmidst Canada's bid to fortify its economy against U.S. trade aggression, easily the most low-lying fruit has been the spectre of interprovincial trade barriers. The various regulatory issues that make it hard for provinces to trade with one another cost the Canadian economy an estimated $160 billion per year. Nevertheless, despite some early successes in knocking down the barriers, a major setback occurred this week when Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew bowed out of a trade deal with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario that would commit all four provinces to collaborate on new pipelines, rail links and other infrastructure. Kinew didn't sign on the grounds that no such projects should proceed without Indigenous 'consensus.' That also happens to be the high standard that Prime Minister Mark Carney has suggested for any new federally administered infrastructure; that nothing gets built unless it has 'a consensus of all the provinces and the Indigenous people.'Get all of these insights and more into your inbox by signing up for the First Reading newsletter. Michael Higgins: Musician and pastor Sean Feucht raises Indigenous ire by cancelling himself 'This was a very violent attack': Nova Scotia man gets 6.5-year sentence for raping transgender woman
