Large cat may have attacked car

FAIRLAND, Ind. -- A large cat mauled a car early this week belonging to a Shelby County woman, flattening its front tires and chewing off part of the bumper, authorities said.\n"You could see where he hooked his top teeth into the top tread of the tire and sank his bottom teeth into the sidewall, flattening the tire," Sheriff's Deputy Travis Maloney said.\nEdra Ragland, 72, called police Tuesday to report the damage to her car, which was parked in the driveway of her home in Fairland, about 20 miles southeast of Indianapolis.\nMaloney responded and found bite and claw marks and pawprints all over the car. Teeth marks were found where a section of the front bumper was missing, and the windshield wipers were damaged, he said. There was also blood on the front of the car.\nRagland said the damage was estimated at $1,700.\nIndiana Conservation Officer Jerry Jackson inspected the car and confirmed the pawprints were those of a cat.\n"I've never seen anything like this in 20 years," he said.\nOne of Ragland's neighbors owns a bear, but the owners have a permit and investigators found the animal was caged.\nRagland's pet cat, which had recently had kittens, was fatally mauled two days before the car was attacked.\n"What we think is the big cat was roaming around. Maybe he heard the kittens or something and may have chased some other animal that ran under the car and climbed onto the engine block," Maloney said.\n"It was definitely trying to get under the hood," he added.\nCougars have been extinct in Indiana since 1850, and bobcats are listed as endangered in the state.\nSome Indiana residents have reported sighting animals resembling mountain lions over the years, but those sightings have not been confirmed.