Coney Island Cat & Arcade Business Moving to Las Vegas

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Coney Island Cat & Arcade Business Moving to Las Vegas

February 12, 2013 by Tricia

Target the Cat & Jimmy Working the Balloon Dart, Coney Island Opening Day, April 5, 2009. Photo © Tricia Vita/me-myself-i via flickr

We’re sorry to report that our friends Target the Coney Island Cat and his human, Manny Cohen of Coney Island Arcade, are leaving Coney Island’s Bowery forever. Evicted by the landlord, they’re moving to Las Vegas, where Target will prowl the casinos on a leash and hunt chipmunk, says Manny. We’ll especially miss taking photos of the cat working the Balloon Dart with Jimmy. Cohen, who has been a tenant on the Bowery for 22 years, has until May 1 to vacate the premises, according to a court ruling on Monday. “It’s time for me to move on. I don’t have the arcade anymore,” said Cohen, whose business now primarily consists of selling arcade machines and parts. In May of 2010, a terrible fire destroyed his amusement arcade on a day that workers sent by the landlord tarred the roof.

The future of Target’s feline friend Pretty is uncertain. After Target’s sister perished in the arcade fire, Manny took in the feral calico cat to keep Target company. Pretty’s territory is more wide ranging than Target’s and includes Wonder Wheel Park as well as 12th Street. Though she runs inside the arcade’s warehouse at mealtime and bedtime, neither Manny nor his friends have been able to pet her or get within several inches of her over the past three years. Getting the cat into a carrier and taking her on a road trip would be daunting, so she will remain in Coney Island. The two game concessions that Manny still operates on the Bowery will open on Coney Island’s Opening Day and Easter Sunday. We hope that Jimmy Balloons is able to rent the game for the remainder of this season and that Pretty doesn’t become another homeless Coney cat. She’s had a pretty sweet deal for the past few years.