'Scammed on the worst day of my life': Pet owners say cremation service took their money, ghosted them

On a Monday night in early March, Robert Balog and a friend made the hour-and-a-half drive from Van Nuys to Oxnard to meet an elusive man in a Best Buy parking lot.

The man, 35-year-old Anthony Nuñez Jr. of Oxnard, emerged from an old-model red Ford Ranger and handed Balog a thick black bag. Inside were the decaying remains of Balog’s beloved pet, a short-hair American tabby cat named Stewie.

Balog drove Stewie home, rolling down the windows to dampen the smell that began to fill the car. He was just grateful he got him back, he said.

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But We Care doesn’t have a state-of-the-art crematorium; it takes animals to other companies’ facilities to be cremated, according to the owner of one such company. And after they pick up the animals, they often don’t return the cremated remains, multiple customers said.

Several people who spoke with The Times had nearly identical experiences with the company: Nuñez or Valasquez would pick up their pet at any time of day, collect payment through Zelle and promise to return with the ashes in two to three weeks.

Then, as weeks and months passed, Nuñez and Valesquez would stop replying to the customers. They kept the money and, in most cases, blocked their customers’ calls.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-04-18/pet-cremation-service-accused-of-scamming-customers