Feb. 27 (UPI) — A wildlife rescuer in Missouri said he was shocked when a call about a monkey in a homeowner’s garage turned out to involve an actual capuchin monkey.
Michael Beran, owner of Wildlife Command Center in Imperial, said the Tuesday call about a monkey sighting in a St. Louis-area garage was far from the first primate report he has received.
“Look, I get calls about monkeys all the time,” Beran told KSDK-TV. “‘I just saw a monkey in Forest Park, I just saw a monkey in my apartment,’ so when I got the call there’s a monkey in the garage, I was like, ‘Yeah, right.'”
He said his skepticism was replaced with shock when the caller made a FaceTime video call to his marketing manager and showed the animal was an actual capuchin monkey.
“It looks like the one from Friends, I am not kidding you,” the caller said.
Beran rushed to the address.
“For the first time in 60 years, it was actually a monkey,” he said.
He said the monkey initially resisted being lured into a dog crate.
“The homeowner was standing on steps that led to a door that went into a laundry room,” Beran told the Jefferson County Leader. “The monkey all of the sudden decided to jump on the homeowner’s shoulder. She opened the door to get away, and the monkey slipped inside the laundry room. In a smaller, tighter space, I had an easier time getting my hands on the monkey.”
He said the rest of the capture went smoothly.
“It was easy for me to get my hands on the monkey,” he said. “You just kind of control them in a way they don’t feel threatened and I was able to get it into a carrier safely.”
A call came into Jefferson County 911 a short time later reporting a missing monkey named Chico.
Chico was returned home after authorities verified the primate’s owner had the proper permits from the Missouri Department of Agriculture.
