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Four of five stolen exotic animals are back home after being sold to honest folk who knew little of their care.
By MELANIE AVE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 25, 2003
TAMPA -- The weekend's primate caper has come to somewhat of a happy ending, with the return of four of five stolen animals to their rightful owner.
Still missing, however, is a friendly 2-year-old greater bush baby named Chewie.
Two people said Monday they bought the exotic animals on a lark from a tall man selling them out of his pickup truck.
They later learned the primates had been stolen.
Their owner, Christopher Newton, was reunited with the pair of cotton top tamarins, Hairspray and Notail, on Sunday evening. On Monday morning, Newton picked up the two ringtail lemurs, Munchkin and her 4-day-old baby.
While Newton is sorry the people who returned them are out the money they paid, he said the primates are home where they belong.
"Of course I'm excited to get them back," said Newton, a hairstylist who keeps a sanctuary for the animals at his home in Palm River, south of Tampa.
Thieves broke into Newton's fenced back yard while he was at work Saturday. When he returned that night he noticed a broken gate on his fence and three cages with broken locks in the back yard, where he keeps 20 primates.
Five of them, valued at $12,000, were missing. He was worried about their safety, especially a female tamarin with diabetes.
About 8 p.m. Saturday, Gloria Martinez and her 11-year-old daughter Erika Ortiz were driving on 50th Street when they saw a man with two animal cages.
Martinez thought he might be selling puppies.
"I pulled over and asked, 'What you got there?"' said Martinez, a housekeeper.
The man told her he had some monkeys.
"My daughter went crazy," Martinez said. "'Mommy, Mommy, monkeys!"'
The man told her he would sell her one for $100. She had only $40, but that was good enough. He sold her the mother and the tiny baby that Martinez didn't even see.
Martinez said she didn't think it was strange for someone to be selling the primates on the street. "Anything is sold nowadays," she said.
About 6 p.m. on Sunday, mechanic Henry Nunez drove into a Checkers parking lot near 17th Street. He saw a man and woman in a truck with a cage in the back and two tiny animals that looked like ape-faced trolls.
It was raining and the cotton top tamarins were hopping up and down.
"He asked me if I liked them," Nunez recalled. "I said, 'Yeah, they're cute."'
Nunez, who said he felt sorry for the animals, agreed to buy them for $300. He saw it as a simple addition to the menagerie at his Emma Street home -- gerbil, fish, cat, dog and birds.
"I thought monkeys would be fun to have around the kids," said Nunez, a father of three.
At home, Nunez decided to call law enforcement just to make sure the animals were not stolen. He learned they were, and Newton arrived about 90 minutes later to collect his animals.
"We didn't know how to take care of them anyway," said Nunez's wife, Tasha Edwards. "I just gave them a banana because I saw it on TV."
Martinez said she was told about media reports on the stolen primates and decided to return the animals Monday to the Hillsborough County Animal Shelter, even though her daughter was distraught at losing the mother lemur.
"She calls it her pet because I bought it for her," Martinez said, while unloading the lemurs at the animal shelter.
The mother, Munchkin, paced back and forth in the green plastic animal cage, sticking her long fingers and nose through the cage's holes. Her baby clung tightly to its mother's chest.
Bystanders oohed and aahed.
Newton said all of the creatures except the female tamarin are in good shape. She is lethargic.
But he said he's happy she and the others are home and hopes Chewie will join them soon.
Meanwhile, Newton said, he's going to make sure his Doberman pinschers patrol the back yard to protect the primates. He also plans to install a new front fence.
As for Martinez and Nunez, their wallets are a little leaner but they both admit to having a clear conscience.
"I feel like it was a good cause," Nunez said. "The monkeys could have died."
-- Melanie Ave can be reached at (813) 226-3400 or melanie@sptimes.com .