In an incident that local law enforcement described as “bananas,” Missouri deputies successfully captured a tutu-wearing spider monkey that had escaped from its home just hours before a severe winter storm hit the area.
A peculiar emergency call
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office responded to an unusual alert on Friday afternoon when reports came in of someone “monkeying around” near the intersection of Highways 21 and M, close to Otto, south of St. Louis. Deputies arrived to find not a person, but a spider monkey wearing nothing but a pink tutu.
“Shortly before 4 PM on 1/3/25, deputies responded to the area of Highways 21 & M for reports of a subject monkeying around. When they arrived, first-responding units found the subject was naked except for what appeared to be a tutu.
After careful negotiations and some coaxing, deputies were able to get close enough to go “hands-on” with the subject and bring this bananas situation under control without incident,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook.
The escape artist had managed to open a door at its nearby residence before making its brief bid for freedom.
Timely intervention
The rescue proved particularly fortunate as severe weather approached the region. By Saturday, a winter storm had moved in, bringing snow and ice that led to road closures and dropping temperatures that could have proved dangerous for the tropical primate.
Learning experience
The sheriff’s office used the incident to highlight the unpredictable nature of law enforcement work. “This is a great example of law enforcement officers never knowing what they’ll face on any given call and having to be prepared to handle whatever the job throws at them,” they noted in their social media post.
The monkey was safely returned to its caretaker, adding another unusual chapter to local law enforcement history.
