A woman who bought a second‑hand sofa from Facebook Marketplace ended up getting far more than she bargained for after discovering an unexpected guest inside of it.
The TikTok user, who goes by @marrrsbarrrs, and lives in Chicago, Illinois, had just brought home a recliner couch when her friend noticed something unusual.
“He felt a ‘lump,’” the woman explained in another video, though the pair brushed it off and thought nothing of it. There were no sounds coming from the sofa, and they even sat on it for an hour without realizing anything was wrong.
That changed when the seller suddenly sent a message asking a startling question: whether her cat might still be inside the couch. To their shock, the answer was yes.
The cat was curled up inside part of the sofa, a discovery that quickly went viral after being shared on TikTok, racking up nearly 10 million views.
“We thought she was dead,” the woman explained in the follow‑up video, adding that the cat hadn’t made a single noise during the ordeal and her own pets didn’t pick up an intruder in their own home.
It ultimately took four hours to get the animal out of the couch and they were forced to cut open the sofa to free her, before returning the cat safely home.
While the situation stunned viewers, according to the U.K.-based charity Cats Protection, hiding is a normal part of a cat’s behavior. Cats may seek out enclosed spaces to feel safe, to sleep, to lie in wait to pounce on a toy, or simply because being hidden makes them feel more secure.
The viral moment also highlights just how common second‑hand furniture purchases have become.
In an average month, an estimated 491 million online shoppers buy something on Facebook Marketplace, according to Capital One Shopping Research.
A YouGov poll found that in North America, Canadians were the most likely to consider pre‑loved furniture at 46 percent, followed by Americans at 42 percent. The market is projected to grow through 2025.
TikTok Reacts
Viewers were quick to weigh in on the bizarre discovery, with many joking that the sofa had never really belonged to its new owner at all.
“That was her couch,” one user wrote.
Another suggested: “[You should have] waited for the owner to put out missing posters with a reward.”
“As someone who works in the furniture business, this is surprisingly common. Our delivery team brought back a cat in a sofa once. Hell, we just got a cat that was loose in our store/factory. We don’t know where it came from and nobody called us looking for it. (It’s in a loving home now though),” a third person said.
“Imagine hiding in your house and when you come out you are in someone’s house,” commented a fourth user.
Despite the shock, viewers were relieved the cat was unharmed turning what could have been a tragedy into one of TikTok’s most unexpected viral moments.
Newsweek reached out to @marrrsbarrrs for comment via TikTok. We could not verify the details of the case.
Read the full article here
