Another day, another person who decided to steal a cat instead of adopting one of the estimated 3.2 million languishing in shelters and waiting for homes.
This time, a man made off with Antonio, a well-loved bodega cat who was the unofficial mascot of K’Glen Deli and Sari Sari Store in Woodside, Queens. When store owner Glen Alagasi couldn’t find Antonio and the tabby failed to show up for meal time, Alagasi panicked.
Sure enough, footage from security cameras showed a man picking Antonio up right in front of the store’s entrance and walking away earlier that day, on the afternoon of Aug. 2. As the man walked off, Antonio managed to squirm out of his hands and was trying to get back to the bodega. The man scooped him up again and Antonio was last seen in his arms as they headed toward Woodside Avenue.
Like others who have had their feline friends taken from them, Alagasi said he’s much more interested in getting his cat back than any form of retribution or punishment.
“We’re not asking for any criminal prosecution,” Alagasi told CBS New York. “Just, we need the cat back. [The thief] stole a precious thing here in this community.”
For people unfamiliar with city living, especially in New York, bodegas are a daily part of life and often the only places to buy food in neighborhoods that are otherwise “grocery deserts.” When you live in Manhattan or a borough, the concept of big-time grocery shopping just doesn’t exist, because chances are you’re hauling your purchases back on foot and ascending stairs or an elevator to your apartment.
Technically, the Department of Health forbids the keeping of cats in bodegas and delis, which almost always have hot food and sandwiches prepared on-site. But the fine for a rat infestation is the same as it is for having a cat, and inspectors can’t be everywhere, so most bodega owners figure it’s better to have a little pal who keeps the rats away than cede territory to rodents, especially in a city that struggles with a perpetual rat problem.
The laws are so openly flouted that there are entire social media accounts dedicated to bodega cats, and the operators don’t bother to hide their cats from customers or the press. If the inspectors are going to come, they’ll come.
Alagasi says he’s lost a friend, and customers like Pia Tracy are used to seeing the little guy every day.
Antonio, who often plays with Tracy’s cat, is “part of our everyday life.”
Tracy says she’s “devastated and heartbroken because I don’t know if he’s okay. We just hope he’s okay.”
Pain In The Bud 
I read about this day after it happened. Any cameras around? The cat that was stolen near bodega in Park Slope was given back by thiefs friend. Cat now stays home. Owner told me not taking any chances.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry. There are cameras.
LikeLike
Yeah he has the footage, but doesn’t have an ID on the guy so probably not a customer. Hopefully the guy who took Antonio is a local so people can ID him and/or he understands Antonio was not a stray and returns him.
LikeLiked by 1 person
There was a homeless vet named Mike in St Paul, Minnesota, who supported himself by cleaning the parking lots of neighborhood stores and he had a pitbull also named Mike who stayed on the sidewalk with the human Mike. Actually, Mike had an apartment, but he didn’t like to be closed in.
Mike and Mike were a neighborhood fixture until some self-appointed female “rescue worker” stole Mike the dog, because “he was living on the sidewalk.” Needless to say, Mike the human, who had plenty of other problems on his mind, went into a deep depression and the neighborhood was up in arms about it.
I despise these kinds of people, although I suspect that the man who stole the bodega cat wasn’t trying to “rescue” him. Or maybe he was.
LikeLiked by 2 people
There’s a special place in hell for people who take pets away from the homeless. Those pets are often so well loved that if it comes down to who eats, the pet will. And I’m sure if we could ask those dogs and cats, there isn’t another person in the world they’d rather be with.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Was the dog returned to Mike?
LikeLiked by 1 person
WTH is wrong with people stealing pets? I don’t get it. Is it lack of impulse control or do they think they’re “rescuing” the animal?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I spoke to a criminologist about this a while back when two guys forced their way into a house at gunpoint and took a cat. That sort of thing is obviously targeted and motivated by money, because they’re going after breed pets. It has become a lot more common since COVID.
In the cases involving delivery drivers, this bodega cat and other crimes of opportunity, I don’t know. I think some of them are just selfish, callous people who think “I want this cat/dog” and help themselves without sparing a thought for the people they’re hurting or the welfare of the animal. Aside from the trauma of being taken from their homes and their people, the pets may need medication that they’re no longer getting.
I do know one thing, which is that a family near Seattle went above and beyond when their cat was stolen by an Amazon driver last month. The husband and wife drove around for 3 days looking for the car they saw on their security camera and finally found it parked in an apartment complex, then spent several more hours searching for their cat on the grounds, which are covered in heavy brush.
They were absolutely determined to get their cat back, and they did not accept Amazon’s claims that the company was trying to recover her.
LikeLike