Got to laugh:Orlando Police capture monkey with banana

Diaper-clad monkey nabbed with banana in west Orlando

Walter Pacheco Sentinel Staff Writer
5:45 PM EDT, April 4, 2008

A diaper-wearing monkey named Prada chased after residents at a west Orlando apartment complex today before animal control workers tricked him into a cage with their secret weapon - a banana.

But Prada's future is up in the air now because his owner did not have the permit required by Florida law to maintain a primate at home.

"The monkey is temporarily at the Back to Nature Wildlife Refuge in Bithlo," Vanessa Bouffard-Fehl of Orange County Animal Services said. "But because the owner did not have the necessary permit, he'll be turned over to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission."

The Orlando Sentinel could not reach the staff at the refuge for comment.


The police report shows that at about 9:20 a.m., a resident at the Parc Studio Condominiums, located in the 5500 block of Conroy Road, flagged down an officer to report a monkey that had escaped from its cage and running loose.

Officer Safwat Shaheed entered the complex and spotted the 4-year-old capuchin monkey, similar to the lovable primate in the television series Friends, perched on top of a wall and wearing a brown and gray diaper.

Prada was "charging citizens as they were attempting to capture it," the report shows. Residents fleeing from the hostile primate were running into the street and into oncoming traffic.