Listen: Mystery Monkey 911 Calls Released

The Tampa Police Department is still on the hunt for a fugitive monkey it says started raising alarm bells Thanksgiving Day.

In an effort to help people understand there’s no monkey business on the police department’s end, the agency has released recordings of three 911 calls that have come in about the fugitive critter.

“I was just sitting in my backyard and a monkey just ran through it,” the first caller, a male, told dispatchers Thanksgiving Day. “It was a relatively big monkey, about the size of a relatively big dog.”

The second call came in a short time later.

“I’m at the Hillsborough River Dam, I just saw it run through the woods,” that caller told the dispatcher.

A third call was also logged. This time a woman called police to report the slippery primate.

“I saw the monkey,” she told the dispatcher. “It looks like two or three feet more or less.”

The two initial calls sparked a hunt for the creature by officers.

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Thinking the monkey somehow sprung itself from nearby Lowry Park Zoo, patrol officers checked in with the Tampa attraction. They discovered, however, that all the zoo’s “monkeys were accounted for,” the agency wrote on its Facebook page.

“There is no probable cause for this monkey’s arrest, however, we will work tirelessly to apprehend him,” the department wrote.

Those tireless efforts have not yet paid off, the department said on Monday.

“We are still trying to locate the monkey,” the agency wrote on its YouTube page. “If you see the monkey contact police dispatch at 813-231-6130.”

The hunt for this elusive primate is reminiscent of the lengthy search for a creature that became fondly known as the “Mystery Monkey” throughout Tampa Bay.

Cornelius, as he’s now called, made national headlines during his time on the lam. The little rhesus macaque eluded capture for years while working his way through Pasco, Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. The critter, believed to have been cast out of a colony in Silver Springs, was also accused of biting a woman during his lengthy life on the run in Pinellas County.

The Mystery Monkey, who is now named after a character in “The Planet of the Apes,” earned such a big following, a Facebook page was launched in his honor. His story was twice featured on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report,” taking the name of the Mystery Monkey of Tampa Bay national.

Cornelius was captured back in October 2012 and was put in quarantine at a Safety Harbor animal hospital for a time. His eventual fate remained in the balance until it was announced he would join the other animals living at Dade City’s Wild Things zoo.

Does Cornelius have a copycat?