NEW YORK – The unlucky winner of a storage container in a Queens auction made the gruesome discovery of about 40 dead and frozen cats in the unit, police stated.
Cops discovered the cats in two freezers, and the discovery quickly became even more grisly from there. In one freezer, the cats were stacked on top of the other, police said.
In the second, police found the cats in individually wrapped in paper and plastic bags. One cat was found skinned, resting on a catering platter.
Police responded to American Self Storage on 29th St. near 47th Ave. in Long Island City at approximately 5:30 p.m.
A man won a storage unit in Queens that came with two freezers filled with 40 dead cats. (BRYAN PACE FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)
The man who won the auction paid $150 for the container and then called police after opening the freezers.
The NYPD’s animal cruelty unit arrived, and the ASPCA took the cats into its custody for necropsies.
A 66-year-old Brooklyn woman, who cops didn’t name, began renting the unit in May 2014, paying monthly until this past July.
When the payments had stopped, the unit went up for auction, cops said.
The unit had absolutely no noticeable stench with the freezers closed, but once it was opened, a police source described a “horrendous death smell, rotting.”
Officers actually had to change their clothing and shower because the “stench was stuck to their clothes,” the source stated.
Police found papers, clothing, sewing machines and other assorted “junk” in the unit, the source said.
Cops were still looking for the woman who originally rented the unit as of last Monday night.
Here is a video of the man who bought the container:
