The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Sanctuary's chimp gets loose, gives neighbor a fright

By Darrell Smith
The Desert Sun
November 18th, 2004
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PALM SPRINGS -- Deidre Hopp had just settled into her living room 
chair Friday night when her napping dachshund Jack told her something 
wasn't quite right.

"He was sleeping on my lap and got up and started growling. The hair 
was up on the back of his neck," Hopp said.

Staying at the Racquet Club Road home of a family friend in Palm 
Springs, she looked up to find a chimpanzee standing outside the open 
sliding glass window.

At least Hopp thought it was a chimpanzee. The Los Angeles woman 
didn't stick around long enough to find out.

She ran into the bedroom.

"It was definitely a pretty scary experience," Hopp said later. "It's 
taller than me on its hind legs and I'm five-three."

While friend Michael Grasso hurried to close the doors and windows, 
Hopp grabbed a telephone and called police.

Outside, she said, the chimp wanted in. He was banging on the windows 
and pounding on the doors.

On the other end of the line, police were getting a once-in-a-career 
call on what had minutes before been a mundane Friday night.

And it rang a bell for police Sgt. Dennis Graham. A 16-year Palm 
Springs police veteran, he knew about Casa de Cheeta, the sanctuary 
just blocks away from the caller on Francis Road that houses and 
rehabilitates show business primates.

The home's namesake, Cheeta, the retired chimpanzee star of a dozen 
Tarzan movies, still resides there at the ripe old age of 72.

The runaway chimp, Cheeta's 16-year-old grandson Jeeter, fit the bill.

And he was on the run, darting from house to house, block to block.

Graham this week smiled at the memory.

"We responded (to a call) that there was a gorilla in the back yard," 
Graham recalled. "We beat it up there. The chimp popped over the 
yards, rooftop to rooftop, yard to yard. He headed westbound into 
Victoria Park to hit the monkey bars."

Police and folks at Casa de Cheeta were able to steer the chimp back 
home. The brief pursuit ended in its owner's lap.

Dan Westfall, the chimps' owner and director of CHEETA, Committee to 
Help the Environment of Endangered and Threatened Apes, was relieved 
but could have kicked himself.

Westfall said he'd forgotten to latch a security door and Jeeter 
walked out. It was the first time in their 15 years at the home, he 
said.

"He's a good chimp," Westfall said.

Westfall has since installed a second security door to keep Jeeter 
and grandfather Cheeta inside.

"It's never, ever happened. It wasn't the chimp's fault. It was 
mine," Westfall said. "Fifteen years and nothing like this has ever 
happened."

Days later, Graham still couldn't quite believe it.

"That call will never happen again in 100 years," he said. "It was a 
little comic relief on a Friday night."

But Hopp remains concerned. She said she supports what CHEETA does to 
help the animals, but says a residential neighborhood is not the 
right environment to do it.

"I wanted the neighbors to be aware that this is almost like they're 
keeping a zoo in a residential neighborhood," Hopp said. "It's great 
what they do, but it's not a good place for it."