>http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/389911p-330683c.html
>
>I'd say it takes some balls to 'go public' with an operation like that !
>
>:)
Cat drags him in
Feline helps collar phony-vet suspect
BY NANCIE L. KATZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Perched like the cat that swallowed the canary, detective Fred is all
puffed up at news
conference with Deputy DA Carol Moran and DA Charles Hynes.
Meet undercover detective Fred - the purr-fect cop.
The 9-month-old street-savvy feline pretended to be in need of a neutering
to trap a bogus
house-calling veterinarian, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes said
yesterday.
"This is the first undercover cat," said Hynes, announcing felony charges
against
Kingsborough College student Steven Vassell, 28. "I want to make it clear:
We'll do it
again."
Hynes' office set up the sting after dog owner Raymond Reid re****ted that
Vassell bungled
an operation on his Boston terrier, Burt. Reid, who said he heard about
the phony vet
through the grapevine, said Vassell checked out Burt in August.
Yesterday, as he cradled a healthy, panting Burt, Reid recalled how
Vassell called him
with bad news.
"I was devastated," Reid said. "He called me and told me he found a
foreign object lodged
in Burt's intestines. He told me he had to operate ... that Burt was going
to die. I told
him I was going to come over."
But Vassell decided to deliver Burt himself - with a bill for $985, Reid
said.
"He drove up, and Burt jumped out of the car like there was nothing," he
said. "There was
a scar. His mouth was drenched with blood. He didn't leave any medication
or anything."
Reid said he got Burt to a real vet, then called authorities.
That's when Hynes deputized Fred, a stray kitty with pneumonia rescued at
4 months old by
city Animal Care and Control.
Secret cameras caught Vassell on a house call to an undercover agent who
asked him to
neuter Fred, authorities said. She handed him $135. Vassell was arrested
as he left the
apartment, Fred in hand.
"We saved [Fred's] life," said Joyce Clemmons, who heads a Brooklyn
shelter. "Now he's
giving back to other cats and dogs."
Vassell, who pleaded not guilty, did not return calls. He faces up to four
years in prison
if convicted of unauthorized practice and use of a professional title,
criminal mischief
and other charges in a 14-count indictment. Investigators said they've
questioned six
other pet owners and have 50 more to call.
Hynes said Vassell's only experience was working as a vet's assistant in
Long Island.
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