Strange

Bongo is Missing: $500 Reward for Stuffed Monkey

by Jordan Yerman | August 3, 2011 at 03:17 pm

1119 views | 4 Recommendations | 2 comments

Jack Zinzi & Bonnie Marcus Offer $500 for Missing Toy Monkey

Bonnie Marcus and Jack Zinzi really love Bongo, a Beanie Baby monkey that they bought at a secondhand store. When the Manhattan couple lost Bongo while dining out in Park Slope, Brooklyn, they freaked out. [Update: Bongo has been reunited with his adoptive parents!]

Bongo went missing on Fifth Avenue just south of Atlantic. Says Zinzi, “Somebody must have come along and thought he was as cute as I know he is.”

Park Slope is now festooned with posters offering a $500 reward for anyone who finds Bongo (who must be scared and lonely, if he were actually alive). As manager of the Monkeys Channel, I cannot ignore such a big story. That said, despite Marcus' and Zinzi's assertions to the contrary, my troll-o-meter is creeping into the red.

[Update: I was wrong. This was no troll, but pure paternal stuffed monkey love. It's a beautiful thing, and I'm glad to see Bongo is both real and back with the family who loves him.]

It’s unclear if police have been notified, but any decent gumshoe would have no problem tracking down a missing person with this description: Peach skin, jet-black eyes, perpetual smile stitched on his face, eight inches tall.

Bongo must be truly unique. Beanie Babies have not held their value from their mid-Nineties heyday. Monkeys can be had for around ten bucks, but they may not have that je n'est ce quoi.