A woman was rear-ended and then carjacked in Manhattan on Sunday night. Her fancy sports car was gone in an instant, but it was her cat inside that concerned her the most.
Ronette Riley adores her Maserati.
“It had lime green calipers and stitching—it was my dream car. Riley added, “I worked really hard my whole life and I wanted a dream car.”
She enjoys hearing its engine purr and traveling at high speeds.
However, on Sunday around 11 p.m., she was rear-ended by a black Mercedes-Benz on the West Side Highway.
“It was a couple — couldn’t have been nicer. He said he was on his phone and didn’t realize. They had the whole story down,” said Riley.
Within two minutes, while she was busy, someone rushed into her Maserati and drove away, taking her cat, Eilee, with them.
“I was more worried about the cat than anything. They drove away so fast. Cops got there so fast,” she said.
Riley claims cops arrived within a minute and knew exactly how to monitor and follow her vehicle. She claims authorities cornered the suspects, and they crashed.
Police detained an 18- and 20-year-old, but Eilee remained missing.
“I just wanted to help her as much as I could,” Riley’s aide, Paige Lundgren, explained.
The next morning, Lundgren posted missing flyers on social media and inquired with animal rescue organizations. Within hours, they discovered the cat on Facebook at the Pa’Picar restaurant, a few kilometers north.
The restaurant personnel understood she wasn’t a stray.
“The cat was dressed. The cat had like a t-shirt, like a striped t-shirt. Was a hairless cat with two different color eyes. Was a very weird cat,” said restaurant owner Manuel Ortega.
“So I go outside to ask the people, like you don’t see nobody with a hairless cat with t-shirt? And the people started talking to me like what are you talking about, a hairless cat with a t-shirt on?” This is not gonna work man. So I posted on social media for find the owner for this cat.”
Ortega stated no one believed him.
“They offered me money, but I don’t see it like the right thing, like take the money,” he said.
Riley is disappointed about her Maserati, but she is relieved to be reunited with her pet cat.
