Man seeks to reunite child, toy lost in 9/11

Stuffed monkey left in back of Samaritan’s car

Abe Wachsman has ferried around a stuffed monkey in the back seat of his car for more than 20 years. It was left there by a toddler who Wachsman helped in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks in New York City.

Wachsman, who lives in Queens and is now 73, was driving to his office in Lower Manhattan’s financial district that morning.

But when he had to turn around, Wachsman offered rides to people fleeing on foot. Six ended up in his SUV, including a couple and their toddler. The child was clutching a dark brown stuffed monkey with wide eyes and a stripe of bright yellow fur on its forehead.

After Wachsman dropped his passengers off, he said he noticed the plush primate still in the back seat.

“I can’t remember whether the child was a boy or a girl,” he said, “but I had the impression they were visiting New York on vacation.”

He kept the stuffie in his car, thinking he might one day reunite it with the family.

“I knew the likelihood was pretty low, which is why so many years went by,” he said.

But after the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks last month, Wachsman’s daughter, Jessica Wachsman-selznick, told him she would like to try to find the monkey’s owner — a person now in his or her early 20s.

Wachsman-selznick, 47, of Chicago, posted a synopsis

I HAD THE IMPRESSION THEY WERE VISITING NEW YORK ON VACATION.

of her dad’s story on Facebook and Twitter on Sept. 17.

One man commented that he was a primatologist, and believed the stuffed monkey was a mandrill. “Only a couple of U.S. zoos have them, so it could possibly narrow down what city the family was from,” he noted.

Wachsman said that as he was driving out of the Financial District, he saw that “people were walking down the busy highway, covered in ash and debris.”

He offered three men a ride, then spotted a young couple in their 20s with a toddler in a stroller. Everyone squeezed in, he said.

“(The family) wanted to be let out in the low 20s to mid-30s (streets),” he said. “We rode pretty much in silence. Nobody was in the mood for small talk.

“The child’s parents were in such a hurry to get to safe territory, that the monkey had been overlooked,” Wachsman said.