SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Some neighbors of a Sacramento apartment complex say cats would often come to their garbage bin looking for food, and other neighbors would actually feed the cats, but lately those same cats began to disappear.

"They're not a nuisance, and they keep the mice away and they've always been here," said Nick Manaresi, a resident at the Greenridge apartment complex on 47th Avenue who has been feeding stray cats for eight years now.

But police say some of those stray cats may have been the targets of two teenagers. Investigators say Monday they arrested the teens after they were spotted lurking around the complex wearing ski masks and hoodies and carrying a box.

Inside the box was a disturbing find.

"They captured the cat and stabbed the cat to death inside the box," said Sgt. Andrew Pettit of the Sacramento Police Department.

Marcela Adame says her neighbor claims to have seen the teens about a month ago hunting down the cats.

"She seen them with the black ski masks, two kids with black ski masks," she said. "She seen them chasing the cats, hitting them with the sticks."

Tekema Bryant recently found a cat near her apartment.

"A dead cat in my parking stall," she said. "It was on the ground not too long a go."

Manaresi saw the officers arrest the two teens.

"I've never seen so many officers take so many pictures and detain somebody so young," he said.

But who has the heart to go through the effort of killing the cats. And why?

"They're troubled," Manaresi said. "They're really troubled kids."
The two juveniles are still behind bars and police are still trying to figure out the alleged motive.