Fort Greene ATM Cat Is Coming for Your PIN

Photo by Josh Waltz

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — You've been warned of New York City's prolific new school of ATM skimmers. You've heard neighborhood legends, passed down, about that charming breed of alley cat who can turn a street full of humans into his faithful constituents. But nothing could prepare you for Fort Greene ATM Cat, a disarmingly handsome desperado type who will lure you with her immense fuzziness while peeping your PIN with cunning amber eye slits.

Greenpoint resident and Reddit user Josh Waltz photographed ATM Cat in her natural habitat early Sunday morning outside Gardel's Greene Garden on South Portland Street.

Gardel's has been closed the past few months for winter, but will re-open in two weeks or so when its owner, Gardel Prudent, returns from Florida for Brooklyn's warm season.

"The cat is the actual owner of the business," Prudent told us over the phone. "I work for her."

Fort Greene ATM Cat has a name, he said: Myla.

"She's very loving and very smart," Prudent said. Myla often perches atop the ATM in the morning, he explained, because "she gets a lot of attention from people on their way to work."

While Prudent is in Florida, he said a neighbor has been leaving out food for Myla.

"She's not a street cat, she's a yard cat," he said. "She's smart, so she moves along. She will let you pet her, she will let you hold her — but don't try to take her away."