MUTT NABS CAT LADY’S IDLING CAR

What a dog!

A opportunistic crook swiped an idling Volvo from a bighearted woman busy feeding stray cats in Queens — and used her credit card to buy booze, cops said Wednesday.

Charlotte Conley said she was feeding a colony of stray cats outside Public School 70 in Long Island City at about 8 p.m. Jan. 16, when she left her 1999 Volvo running nearby on 43rd St. near 30th Ave.

As she generously doled out food, the crook jumped into her car and sped off.

Conley said she left the engine on because the 21-year-old car had problems starting, and the weather outside was frigid.

“There were 40- [or] 50-mph winds, enough to knock you over. And it was bone-chilling cold,” said Conley, a business professor at Metropolitan College of New York who runs Astoria Cat Rescue.

The group feeds more than 200 cats a day at 17 different spots in the area.

“I didn’t have my volunteer with me, so I left the car running while I was putting the food under a car behind me,” she said. “There was this person that happened to be out in that weather and saw it and jumped in the car as I ran after him in the middle of the street.”

She came close to catching up with him — the crook was stopped at a red light, honking the horn at the cars in front of him, she said. But just as she got to the window, the light turned green.

The car — which was donated to the rescue group — was recovered about three blocks away, but the credit card she left inside was gone.

She and the police used the Find my iPhone app to locate the vehicle at Broadway and 48th St.

The crook used the purloined card to buy $25 worth of booze at a liquor store a few blocks from where the Volvo was found.

“They tried to take fingerprints, but it was so cold and so windy, they couldn’t get prints,” Conley said. “He took my wallet and all my IDs. I had to cancel everything. He used my card at several places, at a liquor store, a deli, a restaurant.”

Cops released surveillance images (inset) of the car thief Wednesday and asked the public’s help identifying him and tracking him down.

Conley thinks the thief saw her feeding the cats before and saw her as an easy mark.

“Now I always make sure I have someone with me and I don’t leave the car running ever when I go out to feed,” she said. “But when the weather is really inclement, I have to take the car.”

Anyone with information was asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.