Cat mask bandit’s partner arrested one year after robbery spree, feds say

Their year-long game of cat and mouse has finally come to an end.

Police have found the alleged accomplice of a bandit in a cat mask who went on a multi-borough armed-robbery spree last year.

Alrick Bucknor, 27, allegedly helped cat-man Willie Vital knock off four bodegas at gunpoint in less than a week in February 2022, police said. Bucknor allegedly wore a plain black mask.

He was finally charged in the robberies this month after police responded to a disturbance at an apartment in Staten Island on Feb. 2 and identified him as Vital’s alleged sidekick.

Prosecutors said Bucknor was in on four stickups — two in Brooklyn on Feb. 12, and one in Queens and another in Brooklyn less than 90 minutes apart on Feb. 19 — in which the pair took thousands of dollars in cash and more than 100 lottery tickets at gunpoint.

In the final robbery, Vital can be seen in surveillance footage behind the counter — still wearing the cat mask — posing as a worker at the bodega and helping an unsuspecting customer who walked in mid-robbery while the real clerk was crouched on his hands and knees behind the counter, according to court filings.

Inexplicably, Bucknor was let go by New Rochelle police last year, despite being caught the day after the final robbery driving a car connected to the crimes — with a cat mask, gun, and other stolen goods inside, according to court filings.

A law enforcement source familiar told The Post that Bucknor was released from custody because the car he was arrested in wasn’t registered to him and police needed more time to investigate.

Vital was arrested on March 16, 2022 and pleaded guilty to robbery charges in August, according to court filings.

Bucknor was denied bail on Feb. 7 in Brooklyn Federal Court, where he will be tried on four robbery counts. Neither Bucknor or Vital’s attorney’s responded to calls seeking comment.