Cat found safe following break-in at popular Seattle cat cafe

SEATTLE - An attempted burglary at a popular cat cafe in Wallingford caused quite a scare after the suspect let out one of the café's beloved cats while breaking in a back door. 

The owners of Seattle Meowtropolitan say they were scared they lost Penguin the cat for good, with the whole ordeal caught on camera. 

During visiting hours at the cafe, Penguin is often the life of the party. The friendly tuxedo cat can sometimes be found in the cafe's cat tunnel or hanging out with other cat celebrities at the paw-some cat wheel, pictured below. 

"He loves treats, and he loves doing tricks for treats," said Andrew Hsieh, Seattle Meowtropolitan's owner.  

His signature move is the high-five. 

The fluffy resident nearly used up one of his nine lives after a human cat burglar was caught on camera, breaking in through a backdoor at the cafe.   

"Came here and sat here and stared at the door for a good minute while the person was trying to break in," said Hsieh.  "He’s very smart."

Security video shows Penguin approaching the door after hearing the person trying to pick the lock. 

The cat sits at attention, swishing his tail, waiting to see who's making all the noise..

"You can see he’s sitting there wondering what’s going on," said Hsieh.  

When the suspect pokes their head in, their long hair and black cap visible in the security video, Penguin runs out. 

"We were worried that he was going to be gone," he said. 

When the alarm company alerted Hsieh to the break-in, he rushed out the door.  

"We quickly put on clothes and drove as fast as we could over here," he said. 

Fortunately, an enclosed hallway separates the area of the café from the outside world.  

"Luckily he was still inside the hallway in the building, so we grabbed him," he said.  

The person left quickly without entering the safe, likely because the room that they broke into was filled with litter boxes.   

"The person who broke in was probably very confused, they opened the door and a cat runs out and there are four litter boxes here," said Hsieh. 

He says the attempted burglar also broke the lock on a vacant commercial space next door, and may have been spotted on security video trying to get into other buildings in the Wallingford area around the same time. 

Hsieh says thankfully, Penguin wasn't catnapped.  

"He’s very bold, brave and he doesn’t really care about much besides treats," he said.

Penguin has settled back into his easy-going life with the other cats at the café and is getting more high-fives for avoiding cat-tastrohpe. 

"Just very glad that he was still here, that he was still in the hallway," said Hsieh. 

He says that he has filed a police report and is asking anyone who recognizes the suspect to contact Seattle Police at