Catnapped bodega cat in Brooklyn reunited with owner after intense grassroots campaign

Three-month-old Jabal was returned to Park Slope bodega after community rallied to rescue purloined kitty

The owner of a New York City bodega on Tuesday was reunited with the store's cat after a couple passing by the establishment five days earlier appeared to abduct the feline in plain view of a surveillance camera and ignited an intense grassroots search effort.

The plight of three-month-old Jabal began on Thursday morning in Brooklyn, when he went just outside the Eighth Street Mini Market where he lives as it opened for the day. A man walking alongside a woman passed the Park Slope market then picked up Jabal, and the pair took off as the kitten visibly squirmed, according to store surveillance video which the bodega's owner, Imad Jimmy" Innab, reviewed after he noticed the cat had gone missing.