Escaped Monkey Prompts Bizarre Police Warning
Posted August 9, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
What is it with monkeys and headlines this week? On Wednesday we told you about an airline passenger in New York who managed to smuggle a small monkey into the U.S. hidden under his hat. And now another story about a primate has emerged, this time in Madison, Wisconsin.
It started innocently and ended with a chase you wouldn’t believe if you saw it in a movie. A woman was walking by the beer garden of a popular nightclub, when she stopped to pet the diaper-wearing animal being held on a leash by its owner. But the monkey didn’t appreciate the attention and decided to let the lady know by biting her on the thumb.
That set off a chain reaction of events. The woman was taken to hospital as a precaution and the physicians decided they’d better examine the creature to ensure it didn’t have any diseases. But when police and animal control officers came to get it, the owner – who explained it was a ‘helper monkey’ – lost control of the tether and the animal got loose. It began running down the street and disappeared.
For seven long hours, the search continued with police being forced to issue this bizarre warning to the good citizens of Madison: “It is now on the lam, presumably still in the State Street area.” The public was told be on the lookout for a foot tall monkey with a ‘prehensile tail’.
They finally captured it downtown half a day later and it will remain in quarantine for the next 10 days. The woman appears to be in good shape – or at least good ape – for now, but doctors are keeping a close watch on both of their unexpected patients.
