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'Stoner' teen jailed for stealing monkey, crocs
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/08/2134371.htm?site=idx-nt
Posted January 8, 2008 18:46:00

A Palmerston teenager has spent the afternoon in jail for stealing a monkey
and two baby crocodiles in two separate raids on a wildlife park on Darwin's
outskirts in July last year.

The Darwin Magistrates Court heard 19-year-old Benjamin Glen Watts and a
friend broke into Crocodylus Park and stole two baby crocodiles and three
radios because they had been smoking cannabis and thought they would be able
to make some money.

When they failed to find a buyer they went back a week later and stole a
marmoset for a friend.

But that sale fell through as well.

Watts's lawyer said his client admitted it was a "dumb stoner" thing to do
and said he had written to Crocodylus Park apologising.

He said Watts had successfully completed drug counselling and asked that he
be given a non-custodial sentence.

But Magistrate Greg Cavanagh did not agree and sentenced the teenager to
three months jail, suspended after court closed this afternoon.