Authorities on Thursday could be seen zooming around on ATVs and flying drones as they continued to search for a monkey that has been on the loose for days in Tewksbury, officials said.
Bob Minton said he heard the monkey making noise near his home but never got a glimpse of the elusive animal, which has been on the run since Tuesday.
“It was like a chattering type of noise,” Minton said. “I thought it was like a dinosaur. Like the Dilophosaurus from ‘Jurassic Park,’ like the one that got Newman.”
Diane Charlton rushed to snap a photo of a monkey that she and her friend saw early Tuesday morning while out for a walk.
“Took a look over our right shoulder and we saw the monkey. And he was just sitting and staring,” she said. “Not aggressive or anything, his eyes wide open, black tiny face.”
Coincidentally, they spotted the exotic animal outside the Shawsheen Animal Hospital on Main Street.
“I think it stunned us. You don’t see a monkey in the wild around here,” she explained. “And he just ran off after that.”
However, the curious monkey was not done with the Charlton family.
A day later, the primate showed up at their house a half-mile away from the animal hospital.
“I was just cleaning the pool and I had walked over, and I looked up and I heard a noise and he was over behind this corner, standing where the gate is, and he just jumped over and ran away when he saw me,” Charlton’s son said.
Police and animal control responded to the area but the elusive monkey was nowhere to be found.
Officers have set up a camera and left behind a little cage and some fruit to try and lure the monkey to safety.
Doctor Michele Caruso, a veterinarian at the animal hospital, said people should not approach the monkey should they happen upon it.
“Some species of monkeys, and we don’t know what species this is, can carry something called herpes B, which causes encephalitis, which is fatal to humans,” she said.
It is believed that the monkey is a pet that somehow got loose.
Anyone who sees the animal is asked to contact the Tewksbury Police Department at 978-851-7373.
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