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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

10,000 Dollar Reward Offered For Information On Monkey Snatcher

http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=1838087&nav=15MVMovt
[ Includes video news footage ]

May 4, 2004

Metro police are investigating a bizarre animal abduction. Last week, 
someone snatched two exotic monkeys from a local pet shop. This 
morning, the stolen monkeys were recovered alive and unhurt. But this 
appears to be more than just a monkey-snatching case.

The pet store owner thinks a rival business orchestrated the theft. 
He says the attack on his monkeys was well planned. He believes there 
was a conspiracy to hurt his business by stealing expensive animals.

Joseph Sy says the monkey business is a high-stakes enterprise. He 
says this squirrel monkey sells for 5-thousand dollars, the spider 
monkey: 12-thousand. Getting them back alive and well: Priceless.

"I didn't realize this business has an ugly side to it."

He says a newly hired employee is the one who grabbed the monkeys and 
dashed out of the store when no one was looking. The abduction came 
as quite a shock to employees here who were very attached to the 
animals.

"I was really upset, I was crying."

But out of the blue, a mysterious phone call to the pet store owner 
gave the location where the monkeys were found unharmed inside 
cardboard boxes. Now that the monkeys are back, the store is not 
taking any chances. They have the cages chained to a metal 
foundation, and padlocks on the doors.

"We're offering a $10,000 reward. We're not gonna let somebody do 
this to anyone again."

As evidence of his conspiracy theory, the store owner played for us 
an ominous sounding phone message from someone he believes is a 
competitor in the exotic animal business.

Joseph Sy says it's the people who orchestrated the abduction of his 
monkeys and not the animals who are the ones that belong behind bars.

There may not be any such thing as a monkey mafia, but that pet store 
owner says he sure feels like the victim of some kind of criminal 
shakedown. The monkeys are indigenous to the jungles of south 
America. Right now, Nevada has no laws restricting the importation or 
sale of exotic monkeys.

--
carrie mclaren
stayfreemagazine.org
carriemclaren.com
ph: 718.398.9324