Advertisement

Monkey captured after a day on the run in North Carolina

Carter the monkey escaped his owner's car at Carolinas Medical Center-University in Charlotte.

By Ben Hooper
Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter

CHARLOTTE, N.C., March 27 (UPI) -- Authorities in North Carolina said they have captured a capuchin monkey more than a day after it escaped from its owner's car and bit a hospital worker.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Animal Care and Control officers responded just after noon Wednesday to Carolinas Medical Center-University on a report of a monkey loose in the parking lot and they arrived to find the primate, named Carter, had escaped from its owner's car in the lot and was temporarily detained by a hospital maintenance worker before it managed to escape again.

Advertisement

Police said the worker was bitten, but the Carolinas HealthCare System, which runs the hospital, said the simian suspect only "slightly scratched" the employee.

The monkey fled to a nearby wooded area and officers searched for the animal until it made a second appearance Thursday evening in the same parking lot.

The primate perp was apprehended and police said Carter is being held in rabies quarantine for observation.

Police said they have had previous run-ins with the monkey and his owner. They said the woman was issued a city ordinance violation for having an exotic animal in March 2014 and she refused to turn the monkey over to authorities.

Advertisement

The department did not say whether Carter will be returned to his owner.

Latest Headlines