Couple offering $500 reward for return of beloved monkey doll Bongo

Two grief-stricken Manhattanites have frantically papered Park Slope with fliers offering hundreds of dollars for the safe return of their closest companion — a beloved monkey doll named Bongo. Bonni Marcus and Jack Zinzi said their best friend went missing on Sunday night during a routine outing to their favorite Fifth Avenue restaurant, El Viejo Yayo. The disappearance occurred at around 7 pm, as Marcus and Zinzi were walking from their car near Flatbush Avenue to the eatery.

“I walked over to the restaurant, sat down, ordered the food, and reached into my pocket to put Bongo on the table — and saw that he was gone,” Zinzi said. “I tore the car apart. I was in a bad way. Bongo really means a lot to me, so I kind of broke down. It happened so fast, because I couldn’t have been in the restaurant 10 minutes before I realized he was gone,” Zinzi continued. “Somebody must have come along and thought he was as cute as I know he is.”



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. The doll has been a constant part of Marcus and Zinzi’s lives for 10 years now. The two adults are devastated enough to offer $500 to anyone who has happened across the wayward Beanie Baby. The reward appears on fliers posted all over the area, with “Help Me Get Home” hastily written in black Sharpie.

Marcus, 47, and Zinzi, 58, are not in a romantic relationship with each other, but they regard Bongo as the son they never had. Zinzi, a Park Slope native, bought Bongo at a discount store upstate a decade ago. “Bongo’s simply a member of our family,” said Marcus, who uses the term “mother” when talking about her relationship to the doll. “We take him everywhere, we talk to him.”