Savannah cat worth $2,000 stolen from LA barbershop

“I had no turkey, I had no ham, I had no appetite,” said the cat’s owner Joe Gomez, who found out about the robbery at 7:30 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day from one of his barbers.

“They stole our family shop Savannah cat along with all our barber machines and merchandise,” said the shop’s Instagram page.

“The burglars’ intentions were to steal the cat,” said the post. “We just want our cat SIMBA back. Material stuff comes and goes,” the post read.

Savannah cats are a rare breed, comprised of part domesticated cat and part wild African serval. Early generations of the spotted tabbies can be worth as much as $20,000, according to a Savannah cat breeder in North Carolina.

Gomez, a self-proclaimed cat lover, saved up to buy a Savannah cat for years and finally got Simba a year and a half ago. He believes the robbers stole the cat thinking it was worth much more. “I think they came to take him because they thought he was worth a lot and could sell him,” Gomez told The Post.

“But his value to me is priceless, he is my cat,” Gomez said. “I take him on walks around the neighborhood and to Griffith Park. He was my baby,” Gomez added.

Savannah cats are extremely intelligent and are known to sometimes learn how to open doors, turn on faucets, or flush toilets, according to The International Cat Association.

Simba was savvy as well and knows how to open the latch on his cage, Gomez told The Post. He’s hoping Simba will be smart enough to escape his captors, run away, and get recognized by a Good Samaritan.

In the meantime, he worries that Simba will be too loud for the robbers to handle. “He is also very loud. That’s my fear because they are going to mistreat him when he is making those noises, and hurt him to make him quiet,” said Gomez.

Gomez has been staying at the shop since the break-in to make sure the rest of his shop isn’t looted. “This shop is everything to me. It feeds my family,” he said.

“I think these people have no heart. They don’t care about how other people feel,” Gomez told The Post. “It’s devastating that this happened,” Gomez added, but said it made him think differently about Thanksgiving.

“It makes me thankful for the clients I have. I didn’t know I was so appreciated in my community. I have 700 shares, and it makes me feel thankful that they are all helping me find him,” said Gomez.

While the Sheriff’s Office took a report on Thanksgiving Day, they have not been in touch since. Meanwhile, Gomez is working with private eye Moses Castillo, a retired detective, who has used the robbers’ license plate number to track down an address for the suspects.

“I’m just waiting for a detective to call me so I can give him the information I have,” said Gomez. While he waits for the call, Gomez is mourning his friend.

“I saw a guy with a cover on his [car] seat and it said ‘cat,’ and I started to tear up. You know when you are missing someone, everything reminds you of them,” Gomez told The Post.

Gomez has a GoFundMe to raise funds to repair the business and help locate Simba, with a goal of $4,000. The page already has thirty donations amounting to $1,355 raised.

“We are heartbroken by this violation of our business and home. The theft of our car, our beloved cat, and the tools we use to serve our clients has left us devastated. We are grateful for the community’s support and ask for help in bringing those responsible to justice,” Gomez wrote on the GoFundMe page.