SANDY, OR (KATU/CNN) – It was the kind of sight that makes you rub your eyes – a cat riding on the hood of a moving SUV.
Taylor Lyn Manuel recorded the images on her smartphone in the parking lot of a Goodwill Superstore this week.
At first, she thought it was fake.
"Then it drove past us like so we could see the cat up close and realized that it was an actual cat, that it was alive and it would stand up and move around," Manuel said.
The cat didn't have the option of jumping off.
“It was attached to the car with a leash, like a pink leash that was attached to … the windshield wipers," she said.
Police in Sandy are searching for a driver accused of driving around with a cat tied to the hood of his vehicle. #LiveonK2 https://t.co/6tF5VMAmlv pic.twitter.com/wXr3uK2vlM
— KATU News (@KATUNews) January 25, 2018
Manuel confronted the driver, a man in his 50s, and dialed 911.
"I told them that I called police and that this isn't OK,” she said. “He just drove off and got on to Highway 26 and was going at least 70, just flying down the freeway and went through two red lights."
The driver was gone before police could get there. Investigators say the car is registered to a driver in Portland, about 30 miles to the northwest.
Police haven’t been able to contact him yet and it’s uncertain what charges the driver could face.
Oregon state law doesn't allow people to put their dogs on the hood of their moving cars, but cats aren’t offered the same protection.
Animal neglect is a possibility, but if the cat wasn’t injured, the law may not apply.
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