Cat Cafe Robber Arrested, Police Say

LOWER EAST SIDE, NY — At least one of the robbers who stole from a cat cafe on the Lower East Side while threateneing store employees with a gun has been arrested, police said Thursday.

Two robbers stole more than $850 in cash from Koneko, the Japanese cat cafe located at 26 Clinton St., in July, police said. Authorities arrested 18-year-old Shakor Pennie on Wednesday and charged him with robbery, according to the NYPD. Patch was not immediately able to contact Pennie's attorney on Thursday. The second robber has not been arrested.

The robbers, both believed to be teenagers, entered Koneko on July 3 at about 10 p.m., an NYPD spokesman told Patch. The robbers indicated that they had a gun inside a bag before demanding money from the register, police said. Employees at the cafe handed over $850 in cash before the teens fled, the spokesman said. No people or cats were injured during the robbery, according to authorities.

Koneko says it's the first Japanese cat cafe and sake bar in the U.S. Koneko, which means "cat" in Japanese, has up to 20 adoptable cats wandering the cafe, all from the Anjellicle Cats Rescue, according to the cafe's website.

Lead image via Patch.