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Stolen Bunny Returned to SoHo Boutique Owners

By DNAinfo Staff on March 17, 2012 2:06pm  | Updated on March 17, 2012 5:10pm

Miss Cooper the rabbit taken from a Prince Street shop 
was returned to its owners on March 17, 2012.
Miss Cooper the rabbit taken from a Prince Street shop was returned to its owners on March 17, 2012.
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Alexander Berardi New York

By Andrea Swalec and Sarah Tan

DNAinfo Staff

SOHO — The rabbit snatched from the window of a SoHo boutique Wednesday by a Stetson-wearing bandit was returned to its relieved owners Saturday after it was dropped off at a nearby police station, a co-owner of the store said.

The beloved bunny was surrendered at the First Precinct station house late Friday by a homeless man who convinced the rabbit rustlers the hare was too hot to handle after DNAinfo broke the story, said Christopher Kulukundis, co-owner of the women's clothing store Alexander Berardi New York, where the year-old rabbit "Miss Cooper" was stolen.

"She was given to police in a fish tank filled with Apple Jacks," said an elated Kulukundis.

He said cops told him that the rabbit-snatching man wearing the black cowboy hat and walrus mustache shown in the store's surveillance video, along with his white-hatted female pardner, are also homeless and were behind the caper. 

Kulukundis explained that another homeless man who knew the pair brought Miss Cooper to police on the alleged thieves' behalf after learning about the incident.

Police did not immediately confirm that account, but the floppy-eared Holland Lop was lounging in the window of the Prince Street shop Saturday afternoon.

"I'm ecstatic!" Alexander Berardi said. "I didn't think we'd get her back, to be honest."

Kulukundis was helping a customer Wednesday about 8 p.m. when two regular visitors to the store, who had previously described themselves as artists, stopped by to pet Miss Cooper.

Kulukundis, 25, said he didn't realize the the man in the black cowboy hat had taken the rabbit until his customer asked where the rabbit was.

The store was bombarded with dozens of sympathetic calls, emails, tweets and texts after the bunny-napping, said Berardi.