I have to agree with you on the lack of common sense. It does seem people are doing things I would have never thought so it is possible it was done on purpose. My first reaction was accident because I forget some of the crazy things people do and I have had cats try to go on trips.
Cats will definitely get themselves into fixes. We don’t even go to the grocery store without getting ours into a bedroom and closing the door, so they can’t get up to dangerous mischief in the wider house.