Franklin the cat isn’t anyone’s pet, but the community in Lynn treats him as if he belongs to the whole city.

The 5-year-old feline often prowls the neighborhood and returns to Pet Express on Commercial Street a couple of times a day for canned food.

It wasn’t especially startling when Franklin didn’t stop by the store Friday night, said store owner Rob Mellace. But when Franklin still didn’t appear the next day, Mellace said, workers checked the store’s video surveillance footage and saw that their beloved friend had been taken.

“We went to the cameras and we saw clear as day, two guys come into the store, hang around for a bit, pick him up, and put him in their car,’’ he said. “It was devastating to us to know he was stolen.’’

Lynn police ran the license plate of the car and contacted the person it belonged to, said Lieutenant Richard Donnelly.

Later, a man, whose name has not been released by police, came to the station and said he was the one who took Franklin, Donnelly said. The man said he let the cat go on the street because it had scratched him.

Donnelly said the man was working to bring Franklin back to avoid criminal charges.

“We just want him back at this point,’’ Mellace said. “He rescued himself by coming to us.’’

The store is offering a reward for information about Franklin.

“He is not 100 percent trusting, so don’t think he’ll come around if someone calls him,’’ Mellace said. “He’s just getting used to people. This might set him back a bit.’’

Mina Corpuz can be reached at mina.corpuz@globe.com.