House Cat Mistaken for Mountain Lion, Causes Evacuation in San Diego

It is better to be safe than sorry, but many people are scratching their heads as to why a common house cat was mistaken for a mountain lion in San Diego. According to ABC 10, the sighting of the animal prompted a police-aided evacuation of a 91,000-square-foot warehouse owned by GTM Discount General Stores around 7:40 am on Wednesday. A call was made to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and when game wardens arrived, they announced that the supposed mountain lion was “just a cat.”

Despite the inherent humor of the situation, employees who were in the warehouse at the time say the mistake was an understandable one. The house cat, which appears to be somewhat larger than average domestic felines, was first spotted overnight by a security guard.

“He thought we had a critter in here and he was definitely right,” Debbi Fieten, who works at the warehouse, told The San Diego Union-Tribune. “The first video was black and white, and the angle made it look like it was a pretty good size.”

The footage was shown to the owner of the warehouse when employees started trickling in for the work day, and the decision was eventually made to call local police. After reviewing the surveillance video, it was San Diego police officers that made the call to Fish and Wildlife.

The cat eventually left the warehouse and is not expected to be dangerous. You can watch a portion of the surveillance video below:

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