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Falling Cat Gets Fined

Cats land on their feet, but sometimes it is not enough to avoid trouble — as the Russian owner of a then-6-year-old feline found out when she was fined for her cat falling out of a window of her apartment and straight onto someone's car.

Zhorik the cat got away with a scare and a bloodied face after plummeting out of a fifth-story window, a district court in the Chelyabinsk Region in the Urals said on its website Monday.

The car he landed on was not so lucky, though, and sustained some dents and scratches, as well as a broken rearview mirror and windshield, the court said. The repair bill came to 23,900 rubles ($700), a sum for which the car owner sued Zhorik's owner.

A magistrate granted the lawsuit, but a district court slashed the compensation 20 percent upon appeal because the cat's landing area was a no-parking zone.

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