Sometimes it doesn’t pay to monkey around…
Daily Star reports that a band of thieves who trained a gang of wild monkeys to steal cash, valuables and other shiny things from easy targets is finally behind bars.
Police in India say two men operating their crime circuit in the capital of New Delhi trained the wild monkeys to rob people blind — making off with cash and, sometimes, food.
One such incident happened in March where the men used the monkeys to intimidate a lawyer to fork over 6,000 rupees — which is about $80 USD. Basically, the men jumped into the rickshaw the lawyer was traveling in and let the monkey’s sharp teeth do the intimidating.
According to police, “When the victim was sitting in an autorickshaw, the men [got in with him] and asked one monkey to sit on the front seat and another at the back… They took the money the lawyer had in his wallet and fled with the monkeys.”
Thankfully, the men’s crime spree has come to an end thanks to the help of a special task force designed to take them down.
Basically, they needed people specialized to handle the “strange case involving monkeys.”
The men were arrested last week and their monkeys were confiscated — where they are already enjoying their new life at an animal rescue.
A third suspect has been linked to the crime ring and remains at large.
Police also note lockdown has made the wild monkeys roaming the areas even more aggressive because, with less people out and about, that means less food being fed to them by charmed tourists — so it appears the primates will do anything to get a meal… even getting hired as the muscle for petty thieves.