CLINTON HILL, BROOKLYN — A group of local students and the NYPD saved a cat stuck on the side of the Brooklyn Queens Expressway Friday afternoon, according to those who helped with the rescue.

Benjamin Banneker Academy students helped rescue the cat they spotted hanging over the barrier above Clinton and Park avenues about 2 p.m. by alerting authorities then running over to try and catch it, school secretary Jane Pieratti told Patch. "I'm a cat lover so it was scary," Pieratti said. "I didn't want anything to happen to him."



The students spotted cat from the top floor windows of their academy, called police, 311 and anyone else they could think might help, Pieratti said. The high-schoolers suggested that Pieratti use Twitter to help get the word out, so she began posting photos of the cat along with the mile marker and tagging the Department of Transportation, she said.



When class ended, students ran across the street below the expressway and stretched open a tarp in case the feline decided to make a jump for it. "It kept hanging down on the edge looking like it was going to jump, but it was way too high up to do that," Pieratti said. "The kids went down there and got a tarp from somewhere to try to get the cat down."

Eventually some NYPD officers came by and Pieratti asked if they could have firefighters use a ladder or go up and get the cat themselves. The officers decided to go up to the expressway to make the rescue, she said.

"It was very exciting," she said. "(The students) didn't leave. They stayed there until the cops rescued a cat."

Pieratti said she didn't get a chance to talk to the cops after they made the rescue so she isn't sure where they'll bring the cat. In the past animals rescued from the highway have been brought to local animal shelters. A police spokesman didn't have any additional details about the rescue and it wasn't immediately clear how the cat made it onto the highway.