Gulfton woman says her cat tried to defend her during armed robbery at apartment

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A Gulfton woman says her cat met the moment when two men barged into her apartment and robbed her at gunpoint.

"He tried to defend me," Monsi Pena said of the feline named Kitty.

Pena said the trouble began the afternoon of Nov. 6 when a man police later identified as Armando Torres knocked at her door posing as a perfume salesman.

"He's selling something perfumes and creams and makeup, and I tell him, 'I'm good,'" Pena said, assuming that would be the end of their interaction.

But the man soon returned with another man clad in a hoodie, mask, and gloves, and armed with a handgun.

A neighbor's surveillance camera shows the men congregating downstairs and planning the robbery in Spanish before returning to the second floor and forcing their way into Pena's apartment.

When she tried barricading herself in a bedroom, Pena said the men kicked the door down.

She said Kitty did his best to stick up for her.

"He's like 'Bad boy,' and I saw he's going up (on top) of the man. And he's like, 'No. Stop it, stop.' And I'm like, 'Uhh, Kitty stop him,'" she said.

But the house cat was ultimately no match for a gun and two violent men, who Pena said began pistol-whipping Kitty.

"He tried to kill my cat," Pena said.

She said the men then began pistol-whipping her while demanding valuables. Police say they wanted jewelry, cash, a phone, and Pena's work permit.

She said they left her with an ominous warning.

"'I can come back to kill you tonight if you call the police,' and I'm like, 'OK, don't hurt me, don't kill me,'" she said.

Video shows the men running down the stairs from Pena's apartment, but Torres was no longer wearing the backpack he had on when he knocked on Pena's door.

Police say he had placed it outside her door and forgot to pick it up. Inside was a cell phone, they say, that was registered to Mohamed Robinson, the man investigators now believe was holding the gun.

Robinson was arrested days after the robbery for assaulting his mother and charged with the robbery on Nov. 19.

Torres was arrested on Wednesday.

Pena said he caught up with her minutes after the robbery as she was making her way to the apartment leasing office to call the police.

"He tried to tell me, 'I'm innocent,' you know, like he (didn't) do (anything). He tried to tell me, 'Don't call the police because it's the Black one who (did) something.'"

Both men are charged with aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon.

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