Man Committed After Trying to Free a Trapped Cat

I'm not crazy, doctor. There really is a cat in my wall.

A Brooklyn man found himself locked up in a loony bin for four days after he smashed down walls in three apartments trying to rescue a fugitive feline.

The bizarre tale began when a mischievous kitty named Rumi decided to explore a hole in the wall of a condo undergoing renovation in Carroll Gardens. Unfortunately for Rumi, the hole opened on a 30-foot shaft and he fell to the bottom.

The contractor, Chris Muth, had been watching Rumi for a friend and panicked when he went missing. He couldn't reach the cat from that apartment - even after enlarging the hole. So the super, Doug Steiner, got him permission to make a small hole in the wall of another unit. But, Steiner said, "He opened up all the walls. I said, 'What the hell are you doing? The owner's going to flip out.' "

Muth couldn't catch Rumi from that hole either, so he broke into a third apartment, and again started smashing walls. Steiner had as much success coaxing Muth out as Muth did with Rumi. So the super called cops - who shipped Muth to a local psych ward. Rumi remained in the catacombs of the condo - a former church. And the shrinks decided Muth was suffering from bats in his belfry.

The hospital records say he had a "bizarre delusion [he] was trying to save a cat of his friend," The Brooklyn Paper reported. But it all ended happily. Muth finally convinced the doctors that he wasn't a wacko. And Rumi, tired of his 15 days in solitary, let himself be caught by professional cat rescuers using a fishing-pole-like device.

"After 60 hours stuck down there, I thought the cat was going to die," Muth told The Brooklyn Paper. "Otherwise I wouldn't have panicked like I did. I can fix holes, but I can't bring a cat back to life."