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Shoppers at a Texas Spirit Halloween were in for a surprise this week after a monkey escaped its owner and starting climbing around the storeThe monkey escaped its owner inside a Plano store on Oct. 27 after being spooked by an animatronic decorationPolice said the animal was returned to its owner without injury
Shoppers at a Texas Spirit Halloween were in for a surprise this week after a monkey escaped its owner and starting climbing around the store.
In video footage obtained by Storyful, a pet monkey can be seen climbing the shelves and swinging from the rafters at the Halloween shop in Plano, Texas, on Monday, Oct. 27.
Arlene Pinkston, a woman who was shopping with her daughters and recorded footage of the wild incident, said that the situation was akin to “Animal Kingdom live.”
“My daughter looked up and she said, ‘What in the world?’ and she’s like, ‘Is that a real monkey?’ and I looked up and said, ‘Well, it’s got a diaper on so I guess it is real,'” Pinkston said, per NBC DFW.
As soon as they noticed the pet monkey — which swung from the rafters for upward of half an hour — Pinkston said she immediately took out her phone to record, as she worried that no one would believe her if she didn’t get footage.
“It’ll definitely be one that I will not forget anytime soon,” she said.
The monkey can be seen climbing the store’s rafters.
Arlene Pinkston via Storyful
Spirit Halloween employee Jimmy Harris told the outlet the pet monkey seemingly was in the store with its owner when it was spooked by one of the animatronic Halloween decorations in the store.
“It was entertaining,” Harris said. “A lot of people just stood and watched it for like 30 minutes, the whole time, they were like, ‘monkey,’ and we had kids trying to catch it.”
According to Pinkston, she grabbed her daughters and left before the monkey was captured.
“It had jumped down on the floor and ran past my leg, and at that point I was like, ‘OK, I’ve had enough,'” she said.
Plano police told PEOPLE in a statement, “When officers arrived, they observed a small brown monkey wearing a diaper swinging from the ceiling rafters. The manager of the location was advised that they were not a monkey whisperer but would try to help. It appeared the monkey was enjoying itself swinging around and was not an immediate danger to himself or others.”
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Additional footage of the monkey.
Arlene Pinkston via Storyful
“The owner was able to recover the monkey with a small cookie,” police added. “Officers explained to the owner to put a leash on the monkey so it does not happen again. The owner then left the location with the monkey. There was no damage or injuries to shoppers, employees or the monkey and it never posed a threat.”
Texas law doesn’t prohibit monkey ownership, but rules about species vary by city.
Lisa Barr, Spirit Halloween’s VP of marketing, told NBC in a statement that the store’s team responded quickly to the situation — and wrote that the incident was “certainly not a typical day at Spirit Halloween.”
“Our team responded quickly and contacted local authorities, who arrived promptly on the scene. In a rather unexpected turn, the monkey was safely coaxed with a cookie,” she wrote. “The monkey was tagged with identification, and returned to its owner without incident.”
“We’re grateful to our staff and local responders for handling the situation swiftly and safely,” Barr added. “While this is certainly not a typical day at Spirit Halloween, we’re glad it ended on a positive note.”
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