Astoria Cat Rescue Car Thief Still At Large: Police

ASTORIA, QUEENS — Nearly two months after the founder of Astoria Cat Rescue says someone followed her on her daily route to feed the neighborhood's stray cats, then stole her car, police say the thief is still out there.

Charlotte Conley, whose nonprofit is dedicated to reducing Astoria's feral cat population, told Patch a stranger followed her for the second night in a row as she set out on her four-mile feeding route the evening of Thursday, Jan. 16.

While she was tending to a group of cats on 43rd Street near 30th Avenue, the man drove off with the donated car that Conley and her volunteers use to drop off food.

He abandoned the car a few blocks away but held onto the wallet Conley had left inside and used one of her credit cards to spend $25 at a Woodside liquor store, according to the police.

Conley said she suspected the theft was targeted, because, the night before, she had spotted a man following her and trying to break into her car, a beat-up Volvo that a friend had donated to the nonprofit.

"He must've been actually watching me for some time to know what I was going to do. That's what's eerie about it," Conley told Patch in a phone interview the day after the theft. "He was hanging out in this freezing cold weather last night watching me."

To Conley and other Astoria Cat Rescue volunteers, the car theft represented a dramatic escalation in a pattern of targeted harassment that they say has them fearing for their safety — and the safety of the cats they're trying to help.

Volunteers have been subjected to expletive-filled rants as they feed, spay and neuter the neighborhood's feral cats. Winter shelters meant to protect the cats from the cold have been dismantled and destroyed. And the cat food left at a series of feeding stations around Astoria every night has been laced with poison, leading to the deaths of at least nine cats last year.

To Conley, the car theft was particularly frightening. She won't stop the work she's doing, she told Patch the day after, but she'll stop doing it alone.

Anyone with information about the identity of this man is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM, or on Twitter @ NYPDTips.