On a Monday evening in early March, Robert Balog and a good friend made the hour-and-a-half drive from Van Nuys to Oxnard to fulfill an elusive man in a Greatest Purchase parking zone.
The man, 35-year-old Anthony Nuñez Jr. of Oxnard, emerged from an old-model purple Ford Ranger and handed Balog a thick black bag. Inside have been the decaying stays of Balog’s beloved pet, a short-hair American tabby cat named Stewie.
Balog drove Stewie residence, rolling down the home windows to dampen the odor that started to fill the automobile. He was simply grateful he acquired him again, he mentioned.
Robert Balog holds the field containing the stays of his late cat, Stewie, that have been finally returned to him.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Instances)
Nuñez and his associate, Nejyredth Valasquez, run We Care Pet Cremations, which gives to select up and cremate pets and return the ashes in Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, Kern and Orange counties. Nuñez and Valasquez spend their days driving hours to select up deceased animals, clients mentioned.
“We Care Pet Cremations solely gives true non-public cremations in a cutting-edge new machine that has separate chambers with separate doorways,” the corporate claims on its web site. “It’s our mission to supply an inexpensive, personalised, detailed and dignified non-public cremation for the one you love.”
However We Care doesn’t have a state-of-the-art crematorium; it takes animals to different corporations’ services to be cremated, in keeping with the proprietor of 1 such firm. And after they decide up the animals, they typically don’t return the cremated stays, a number of clients mentioned.
A number of individuals who spoke with The Instances had almost an identical experiences with the corporate: Nuñez or Valasquez would decide up their pet at any time of day, acquire cost by way of Zelle and promise to return with the ashes in two to 3 weeks.
Then, as weeks and months handed, Nuñez and Valesquez would cease replying to the shoppers. They saved the cash and, most often, blocked their clients’ calls.
Balog reveals his tattoo of Stewie. He says the cremation service he used for Stewie took his cost, then ghosted him for weeks.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Instances)
“I really feel like I acquired scammed on the worst day of my life,” Balog mentioned in an interview. “Within the very-best-case state of affairs, they’re a horrible enterprise that’s in means over their head, simply choosing up animals and never having the ability to course of them. Worst-case state of affairs, they’re scammers.”
Balog, 44, raised Stewie along with his good friend Tory, who declined to share her final identify out of concern of retaliation from We Care. Tory and Balog have been in a position to retrieve Stewie’s decomposing carcass after pestering We Care with calls and texts from completely different numbers and leaving a number of adverse critiques on-line.
Tory additionally made a public Instagram video detailing the ordeal and posted about it in cat rescue teams on Fb. The net posts acquired We Care’s consideration, Tory mentioned, and the corporate agreed to fulfill within the Greatest Purchase parking zone. Stewie had not been cremated when Balog picked him up, though Nuñez had asserted that the cremation had been carried out.
In hindsight, Tory mentioned, she ought to have suspected that We Care was not reputable. “There have been some actually odd issues, however I simply thought perhaps I used to be being hypercritical,” she mentioned. Nuñez picked Stewie up in a “random automobile” regardless of promoting a black automobile service, and accepted the $560 cost solely by way of Zelle — a mechanism that doesn’t permit customers to cease funds or simply get hold of refunds.
“We’re each distressed, we’re mourning and we’re upset. Stewie is like my first little one,” she mentioned. However as time handed, she realized the gravity of the state of affairs she was in.
“Their communication whenever you begin speaking to them may be very constant and responsive,” she mentioned. “Then the second you pay them, they don’t reply or they take a very long time to reply. I simply had a bizarre feeling.”
Tory confirmed her fears when she discovered a number of critiques on-line detailing comparable horror tales. “If you happen to love your pet don’t name this place,” one reviewer wrote on Google a month in the past. “They’re good at first however as soon as they acquire cash and the one you love YOU WILL NOT HEAR FROM THEM AGAIN. … YOU WILL NEVER SEE YOUR PET AGAIN!!!”
Nuñez agreed to an interview with The Instances and scheduled a cellphone name by way of textual content message. Initially of the decision, he mentioned he needed to reschedule for the following day. When the following day got here, calls and texts to his quantity have been blocked.
Tory has helped different pet house owners get again their pets’ cremains. She messaged Yelp customers who left adverse critiques and instructed them to contact We Care with completely different cellphone numbers and ship calls and texts incessantly to get their consideration.
After contacting We Care nonstop about her cat, which had been picked up the month earlier than, 23-year-old Gabrielle Actual of Hollywood lastly acquired a clue as to what Nuñez and Valasquez have been doing with the our bodies.
They instructed Actual that her chocolate level Siamese cat Hela was at a Lengthy Seashore crematorium referred to as Furrever Buddies. The proprietor of Furrever Buddies, who declined to be recognized for this text for concern of being inundated with calls from We Care clients, confirmed she had a contract with We Care to do third-party cremations.
Balog along with his cat Khaleesi.
(Carlin Stiehl/For The Instances)
She has since ended the contract, she mentioned, and We Care has retrieved the ashes for all of the pets it employed her to cremate.
In line with a number of sources, We Care dropped off 50 to 80 lifeless pets at Furrever Buddies with no contact info for the pets’ house owners.
Actual shared the identify of Furrever Buddies with Tory, who instructed pet house owners she was involved with that their animals’ ashes could also be there. The Furrever Buddies proprietor started to obtain distressed cellphone calls from We Care clients and was capable of finding their pets’ cremains at her facility.
Actual retrieved her cremated pet from Furrever Buddies simply over one month after she employed We Care. She by no means acquired her $309 again.
The proprietor of Furrever Buddies, who runs a reputable pet cremation enterprise, mentioned pet house owners should do correct analysis earlier than selecting an organization to select up and care for their handed beloved one.
The shoppers interviewed by The Instances mentioned they paid We Take care of keepsakes together with their pets’ ashes, and acquired none of them. For instance, Jacqueline Alonso, 36, mentioned she paid $227 for her package deal, which was supposed to incorporate a paw print mould of Spot, her chihuahua, and one other souvenir.
She selected We Care, she mentioned, as a result of the cremation service she used for her final pet wasn’t obtainable, and We Care supplied pet pickups 24/7.
“At that second when your pet dies, your head is in all places,” she mentioned. “They put Spot within the trunk and took him away.”
She wouldn’t have gotten her pet’s cremains again if it wasn’t for Tory, she mentioned, who instructed her that Spot is likely to be at Furrever Buddies. She picked up Spot’s ashes in Lengthy Seashore six weeks after We Care collected him.
Throughout these six weeks, We Care gave her a number of excuses, together with journey and household emergencies. “They play pingpong with you and nothing is finished,” Alonso mentioned. “What they’re doing is disgusting, and so they nonetheless have the nerve to deceive your face.”
Alonso, who lives in Huntington Park, by no means acquired her keepsakes or her a reimbursement. However she mentioned crucial factor was discovering Spot’s cremains at Furrever Buddies. “My candy little boy was there,” she mentioned.
Stewie was by no means despatched to Furrever Buddies, Tory mentioned. She believes Nuñez and Valasquez have a refrigerated facility in Oxnard the place they’re conserving the our bodies. “They’re pocketing the cash and so they’re storing the pets,” Tory mentioned. “Do they know what kind of emotional misery and trauma they’re inflicting for individuals?”
Tory assumed the worst when she stopped listening to from We Care — that they’d dropped her pet off in a dumpster or on the aspect of the highway someplace.
The Instances contacted We Care from a quantity aside from the one Nuñez apparently blocked, requesting its enterprise. It responded shortly to rearrange a pet pickup. The corporate is now additionally working underneath a brand new identify, Honorable Animal Aftercare, in keeping with Tory, who noticed that identify on her bill.
“They’re not stopping,” Tory mentioned, who’s weighing her subsequent steps. “I simply don’t need it to occur to anyone else.”
