A deliveryman struck a cat with a package Sunday evening in Virginia Beach, and the homeowner's Ring doorbell camera caught the whole thing. Isabell Sump says the footage shows a man working for delivery service GOFO appearing to intentionally throw a bag at her cat, Opie, and then smirking afterward.
Sump shared the video with WAVY, which first reported the incident. In the clip, the deliveryman with GOFO appears to intentionally throw a bag at Opie, and the man appears to smirk after hitting the cat, according to the station's report.
Owner Says Her Cat Rarely Causes Trouble
Sump described Opie as the kind of cat who keeps to himself. “He's typically a very carefree cat. He doesn't bother anybody unless they give him a reason,” she told the outlet. She also noted that Opie is a black cat and is not very mean, pushing back on any notion that he provoked the encounter.
Her reaction to seeing the footage was a mix of frustration and disbelief. “I was mad and I was seriously baffled, but not too surprised because it is, you know, Halloween,” Sump said, referencing the timing of the incident so close to the holiday and her cat's coloring. The station reported that reporter Andy Fox was working to gather more information on the incident, and the outlet indicated updates would follow.
What Isn't Yet Known
Several basic details remain unconfirmed. The deliveryman's identity has not been established, nor has it been verified whether he was directly employed by GOFO or working as a contractor. No police, animal-control, or company statement addressing this specific incident has been reported, and it hasn't been confirmed whether any citation or other enforcement action has followed. It also isn't known whether Opie suffered any injury or needed veterinary attention.
In Virginia Beach, animal welfare complaints fall under the city's Animal Control division, which keeps officers on routine patrol from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week, with an officer on standby after hours, according to the Virginia Beach Police Department. Under Virginia law, a violation of subsection A of the state's cruelty-to-animals statute is punished as a Class 1 misdemeanor, except in cases of second or subsequent violations, per the Virginia General Assembly's published code at law.lis.virginia.gov. A separate section of that same code states that a person who tortures an animal under the circumstances it describes is guilty of a Class 6 felony, though that excerpt does not establish whether it would apply to this incident.
A Similar Case Overseas
Doorbell cameras have caught delivery workers mishandling pets elsewhere too. In the United Kingdom, two workers for a telecom company's third-party provider were suspended after footage showed one of them carrying a cat by the scruff of its neck, according to the BBC. That cat, named Iceberg, was reportedly put on painkillers for suspected bruising, and his owner said he seemed withdrawn afterward and took him to a vet. The telecom company said it had identified both individuals in the footage and was investigating alongside the third-party provider, while the cat's owner also filed a report with the RSPCA.
No comparable confirmation has emerged yet for the Virginia Beach case. For now, the only verified account remains Sump's Ring footage and her description of what she saw play out on her own doorstep.
