Bobcat hanging by cord from highway overpass in Schoharie County damages car
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SCHOHARIE COUNTY – The animal hit the car with such force, the windshield shattered. Luckily, the family inside, though surprised, was not injured.
“It happened quick. We were turning into the passing lane on I-88 and it came out of nowhere. I didn’t know what exactly it was, and the frightening part was we didn’t exactly know what we had hit,” said passenger Andrew Noble.
It turned out to be a bobcat, but in unusual circumstances.
Noble of Warnerville, his fiance Alisha Irvin and son were on I-88, coming back from the son’s wrestling match in Guilderland Monday around 8 p.m., when they hit an animal dangling on a cord.
“Yeah it was hanging from the overpass on a piece of 550 paracord and it struck us right in the windshield and yeah, it was — bam!!” said Noble.
They were thankful it wasn’t a human being.
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The damage to the car – now at WHB Collision in Richmondville – is extensive.
Noble thinks the cat was killed by a car before being used in a malicious way.
“There are no trap marks on this. Any trapper – this is prime fur, and they would have been proud of their catch and a hunter the same way. There is no bullet wound on this animal. This animal was not tortured and it was not alive when it was thrown off. This was an animal that was, I believe, picked up off the road and then hung over the bridge post mortem.”
Noble is an avid outdoorsman, active in the National Wild Turkey Federation.
“I just want to say that this wasn’t done by an outdoorsman,” he said. “Nobody that respects an animal, domesticated or wild, would have done this act.”
“I believe this was a malicious act done by someone that is not quite in the right state of mind and somebody that has no respect for life in general, whether it be animal or human.”
The family has heard from several people who said they also say the hanging cat, almost hit it, and called the sheriff’s department.
Anyone with information or saw anything Monday night (7 p.m. to 9 p.m.) around the Schoharie Hill overpass is asked to call New York State Police.