Police bust exotic animal ring

LIVONIA, Mich., Nov. 8 (UPI) -- Scores of stolen exotic animals -- some of them poisonous and some of the just strange variety -- have been recovered near Flint, Mich.

Raids on two Genesee County, Mich., homes netted 20 to 50 wild animals, including a kinkajou, wallaby, toucans, scorpions, tarantulas and a monitor lizard named Rupert, the Flint Journal and WDIV-TV, Detroit reported.

The raids also netted three twentysometing humans suspected of stocking their makeshift urban zoos with animals stolen from pet stores and sanctuaries in a string of break-ins dating back to February.

A Livonia, Mich., police sergeant told the Journal they weren't "100 percent sure" what the suspects planned to do with the the animals.

Police were tipped by the owner of an Detroit-area animal sanctuary who spied his pet kinkajou in an Internet ad for a traveling wild animal educational show, the Journal said.