Metro

Ransom monkey business

Give us the money, or Bongo gets it.

The Manhattan couple separated from the stuffed toy monkey they raised as a son say they’ve been inundated with ransom demands ever since offering a reward for the Beanie Baby’s safe return.

“If you ever want to see Bongo alive again, leave $1 million under the Brooklyn Bridge,” one caller threatened on Bonni Marcus’ voicemail.

Others veered from menacing to vulgar, leaving such messages as “I have your monkey, and I cut it up and took out his stuffing,” and “I have your monkey; its in my pants.”

But Marcus and her boyfriend, Jack Zinzi, who for the last decade have always kept their beloved Bongo at their side, aren’t laughing.

Instead, they say they’re still praying someone will heed the cries of the “parents” of the ape.

Marcus, 47, who teaches English as a second language at a private school, Rennert Bilingual, and Zinzi, 58, a building manager, never tried to have children, they said.

Instead, they showered unconditional love on the $5 doll and his identical brothers, Do, Ray and Me, Zinzi said.

“It’s like losing a child,” he said.

Marcus has received more than 100 phone calls and text messages on her cellphone, and most of them have been “sympathetic, offering condolences or offering new dolls,” she said.

Should someone come forward to claim the $500 reward, Marcus says, they will know if it’s the real monkey.

“Bongo has specific marks and features,” Marcus said, refusing to reveal them. “We will definitely know if it’s Bongo.”

Since Bongo vanished Sunday, possibly falling out of Zinzi’s pocket as the couple headed to El Viejo Yayo, their favorite Park Slope eatery, there has been one or two legitimate leads, Marcus said.

A few people called to say they’d seen Bongo in the early-morning hours Monday morning, including one good Samaritan who said she placed the monkey atop a Flatbush Avenue parking meter, she said.

Another reported a Bongo sighting at the corner of Union Street and Eighth Avenue, but when Marcus and Zinzi arrived at the scene, he wasn’t there.

Marcus has faith there will be more bedtimes for Bongo.

“I’m totally confident we will find him,” she said.

rich.calder@nypost.com