New Orleans community on high alert after video shows man stealing beloved restaurant cat

Members of a New Orleans community are on high alert after surveillance footage captured a beloved restaurant cat being nabbed by a barefoot man early Monday morning. 

The cat, Queenie, could be found either sleeping on the porch tables at The Camellia Grill or eating out of her bowl in general manager Ronnie Jaeger’s office.

 Queenie has been a part of The Camellia family since before Hurricane Ida swept through Louisiana. 

“She was well taken care of. She has a bowl of food and water in my office,” Jaeger told USA TODAY. 

A man with a blue shirt and patterned shorts was spotted on the restaurant’s surveillance tape sometime around 8 p.m. He pets Queenie for a while before leaving the porch, Jaeger said. 

The man came back a little after midnight with some dry food in a Bluebell ice cream lid to try and entice the cat and manages to get Queenie into a blue truck despite Queenie putting up a fight, Jaeger shared. 

Jaeger didn’t know anything was wrong until the next morning when he pulled up to the restaurant at 6:15 and didn’t see Queenie run to him, but shrugged off his concern because the cat was known to grab food from a nearby barbershop. 

After a couple hours of searching, Jaeger couldn’t find her. It wasn’t until he checked the surveillance footage later and saw the truck that he began to put the pieces together.

The truck was found parked on nearby street. Jaeger left a note asking the owner to return Queenie. When someone from the restaurant went to check in on things, the note and truck were gone. 

After asking neighbors in the area about the man, they were able to get in touch with his brother who said he’d seen the cat when he went to get Chinese food, figuring it was a stray. 

The brother also reported Queenie had run off. 

 Jaeger filed a police report and alerted the community on the restaurant’s Facebook page with the hope of gaining information that could lead to Queenie’s return.