NYC bodega cat Jabal returned after being snatched from street, owner had announced $500 no-questions-asked reward; woman in custody

Community rallied behind the search for Jabal, a three-month-old kitten, after it was seen snatched by two people outside the NYC Bodega it belongs to.

A three-month-old bodega cat has been reunited with his Brooklyn owner after he was allegedly snatched from a Park Slope street by a man and woman, triggering a neighborhood-wide search for the missing pet.Jabal, who had become a popular fixture at the 8th St. Mini Mart, was returned to his owner Imad “Jimmy” Innab on Tuesday after one of the alleged catnappers arranged for the kitten to be handed over to police. The woman is now in police custody, although she had not been charged as of Tuesday, according to the New York Post.The ordeal began last Thursday morning when Jabal slipped out of the store while Innab was opening up. Security footage showed a man and woman picking up the kitten around 7:18 am and walking away with him.Innab and his customers soon realized Jabal had not simply wandered off. The footage prompted neighbors to begin searching for him and putting up missing-cat posters around Park Slope.A customer later spotted the pair in Prospect Park and confronted them, telling them Jabal was not a stray but belonged to Innab. The couple fled, with the woman reportedly putting the cat inside a bag.According to the Post, the pair eventually took Jabal to Bushwick. As the search continued, Innab offered a $500 reward for his safe return and circulated photographs of the people believed to have taken him.The case took a turn Tuesday when the woman apparently decided Jabal needed to be returned. Rather than bringing him back herself, she reportedly sent her stepson to the 78th Precinct with the kitten.Police then brought Jabal back to the mini-mart, where Innab was waiting.

‘He knows I am the owner…I am his dad’

“When he saw me, he just jumped! He knows that I am the owner of him. I am his dad,” Innab saidThe emotional reunion was particularly significant for the family because Jabal had joined the bodega only about a month earlier, following the death of Victoria, the family’s previous cat. Victoria had lived at the store for 17 years before dying three months ago.Jabal had quickly become a neighborhood favorite, with regular customers getting used to seeing him around the store.Innab thanked the NYPD and the Park Slope community for helping bring his kitten home. He also urged people not to assume that an animal seen outside a shop or home is a stray.“Just leave it. Leave it for their home,” he said.As of Tuesday, police had the woman in custody, while the status of the man allegedly involved in taking Jabal was not immediately clear. No charges had been announced against the woman yet.