INDIAN HARBOUR BEACH, Fla. – A long-haired homeless man nicknamed "Sand Flea Jesus" stuffed a feline named Flounder into a bag and swiped him from Aloha Pet & Bird Hospital last month, employees say.
Then the suspected cat burglar returned Tuesday night — barefoot and wearing multicolored yoga pants — and unsuccessfully tried to enter the cat adoption room, security video shows.
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"He is setting everything free. This is his thing. He goes down to the beach, he tries to dump people's bait buckets out to put the fish back in the ocean," Nina Schrage, Aloha Pet & Bird Hospital desk manager, told News 6 partner Florida Today.
"Cuts people's fishing lines when they're fishing. This is what I heard: Trying to unhook dogs at the (Canova) dog beach from their leashes, so they can be set free. So his thing is setting animals free — they shouldn't be chained, caged or whatever. But he's not firing on all pistons," Schrage said.
On Tuesday, after workers told Sand Flea Jesus to leave, he walked outside and shattered a hurricane-resistant window, possibly using a hammer.
"I never thought he would do that, though. I never thought he would do that," Schrage said Wednesday afternoon, gesturing at the broken window while standing amid cat climbers, ramps and ledges inside the cat adoption room.
"I'd never see him as a violent person. He's very soft-spoken," she said.
The suspect fled westbound on foot after the 7:40 p.m. incident at the beachside Eau Gallie Boulevard pet facility. Police searched the area, with negative results.
In a draft report, a Melbourne police officer described the suspect as a "dirty/unkempt" thin man with a beard and long blonde hair wearing multicolored yoga pants who declared "all animals should be free and not trapped."
Melbourne police valued the window damages at $1,200, and the investigation remains ongoing.
Flounder's Nov. 4 cat-napping generated hundreds of social media comments from Space Coast animal lovers, sparked fliers posted across Indian Harbour Beach, and drew a $300 reward for his return from Wrap-N-Pack Plus.
Schrage said Sand Flea Jesus somehow entered the cat adoption room that day by typing in the security code and stuffed Flounder, a 4-year-old gray tabby, into a shoulder bag, a Melbourne police report shows.
"He came out and I tried to block him, and he just pushed past me with the cat in the bag — shoving the cat in as he's running," Schrage recalled Wednesday.
The suspect hurdled a fence behind the pet hospital and vanished from view. Flounder was later located on Bay Drive in Indian Harbour Beach, and he was adopted by a new family a few days before Christmas.
Employees changed the security code on the cat room door after Sand Flea Jesus snatched Flounder, said Pauline Saraka, manager. The room remained closed to the public Wednesday, and its feline occupants were placed in kennels and moved elsewhere inside the animal hospital.
The suspect was carrying a shoulder bag when he entered Aloha Pet & Bird Hospital on Tuesday, video footage reveals.