Missing Dallas Zoo Monkeys Found In Home After Alleged Theft

Topline

Two monkeys that went missing from the Dallas Zoo on Monday were found alive Tuesday afternoon inside the closet of a suburban Dallas home, according to police, who believe the animals were stolen from the zoo—the latest in a string of bizarre incidents at the zoo.

The Dallas Police Department said two emperor tamarin monkeys that went missing from the Dallas Zoo … [+] on Monday were found alive in a closet Tuesday afternoon.

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Key Facts

The Dallas Police Department said in a statement the animals were found inside an abandoned home in Lancaster, Texas—a suburb south of Dallas—just before 5 p.m. Tuesday afternoon in response to a tip.

The emperor tamarin monkeys have since been returned to the zoo, where zoo spokeswoman Kari Streiber said they will undergo veterinary examinations.

Police said no arrests have been made, but they released an image late Tuesday morning of a man believed to be a person of interest in the monkeys’ disappearance.

What We Don’t Know

It’s not clear what the motive was for the alleged abduction, or how the monkeys came to be in a closet.

Key Background

Zoo officials alerted police Monday morning that the monkeys were missing, with evidence showing their “habitat had been intentionally compromised.” Their disappearance was the latest in a growing list of increasingly bizarre incidents at the zoo, which started earlier this month when a clouded leopard briefly escaped before being located on zoo grounds several hours later. The zoo determined a cut in the leopard’s enclosure allowed it to get loose, and a similar cut was found the next day on the langur monkey enclosure, though none of the primates escaped. The strange stretch took a macabre turn last week, when officials said the death of a vulture it had for 33 years did “not appear to be from natural causes.” The zoo has been closed this week and does not plan to reopen until at least Thursday due to an ongoing winter storm.