Tutu-wearing monkey picked up near highway in 'bananas situation'

Sheriff’s deputies in Missouri say they responded to a "bananas situation" on Monday when they responded to a report of a subject "monkeying around."

In an unusual police stop, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said they discovered a spider monkey wearing a pink-colored tutu near Route 21 and Highway M in eastern Missouri. Spider monkeys are typically found in tropical forests of Central and South America.

In a light-hearted post on X, the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office said that first-responding units found the subject "naked except for what appeared to be a tutu."

"After careful negotiations, deputies were able to get close enough to go 'hands-on’ with the subject and bring this bananas situation under control without incident," the law enforcement agency wrote. 

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Officials said the exotic primate was staying at a nearby home when it managed to open a door and get outside. 

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office posted several pictures of its deputies with the black-colored monkey. In one heart-warming image, a deputy is holding hands with the animal.

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"In all seriousness, 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," the post continues. 

"Deputies surrounded the animal and eventually got it back to its caretaker. Nice work by everyone involved. What a day in #JeffCo."

A permit is required to own a spider monkey in Missouri. 

The news comes days after a spider monkey dressed in a onesie was discovered by police in California.

A California Highway Patrol official stopped a 2022 Rolls-Royce Ghost in Madera County last week for excessive speeding on Highway 99 and found the monkey in the car.

Meanwhile, in November, 43 rhesus macaque monkeys escaped a testing facility in South Carolina. A majority of them were recaptured.