Penza, 14 November 2014. PenzaNews. The leaflet asking for help to locate the missing 8-year-old cat named Malyshka for a reward of 20 thousand rubles appeared in the mailboxes of several apartment buildings in Arbekovo, Penza city.

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“An ordinary cat, normal smooth dark gray color, no spots, stripes of gray, small (though 8 years old), answers to Malyshka. Left eye missing (empty eye socket, just a slit instead), lower right fang pokes outward, upper fang missing. [...] Finder receives a reward of 20 thousand rubles immediately,” reads the leaflet that has come to PenzaNews editorial office.

Leaflet authors also ask not to offer someone else’s cats and kittens, as well as to call out of curiosity and “to complain,” because “the family is already in the state of shock.”

Some local residents who received the leaflets, noted that they are typeset and printed using professional equipment, which was the case for suspicion. Firstly, according to them, the reward for the animal, even the very favorite one, is extremely high and incomparable to average salaries and pensions. Secondly, some people believe it is a kind of fraud: however, they could not explain the possible mechanisms of deception.

However, one of the residents of Arbekovo told PenzaNews agency that along with traditional advertisements of allegedly immediate installation of gas meters and the consequent penalties in 2015, another one about asking to help investigating “a particularly serious crime” grew prominent.

“These leaflets offer a reward for a DVR video from any car driving during a certain period of time near the house. Supposedly, there was a crime, and they want to solve it. I believe that if in fact something happened there, and someone became a witness, it is necessary to contact the police, call 02, and not wait for someone to give some money. It looks more like fraud, although it is possible that people have simply stopped trusting each other. After all, nowadays, there is so much deception around us now,” she said.