Couple Bombarded by Calls Finds Their Number on a Shirt

A Canadian couple who spent months fielding calls from Americans who claimed they had found their lost cat has traced the issue to a shirt boasting a missing cat poster, complete with their actual phone number. The shirt sold by Wisdumb NY, based on Long Island, featured a photo of a missing cat dubbed "Turbo," the offer of a cash reward, and a phone number with a 604 area code, belonging to Natasha Lavoie and Jonathan McCurrach of British Colombia. "Every day, sometimes like six times a day, I'm getting these really random phone calls and people leaving me voicemails saying that they found my cat and they want money for my cat," Lavoie tells the CBC.

The couple do have a cat, but she's not lost, nor is she named Turbo, per the New York Times. For a while, Lavoie and McCurrach thought the calls were part of some scam. Then McCurrach questioned a caller and learned of Wisdumb NY's offering. The company says "the use of a real number within the art created was not intentional" and that the shirt has now been removed from its website. But posts about it remain on TikTok and Lavoie and McCurrach continue to receive calls about Turbo. For now at least, Lavoie plans to keep the number she's had for the last 20 years, though she says she won't be answering calls from unknown numbers. And "I feel like I deserve a T-shirt after this," she tells the CBC.