Joseph Randall, a 61-year-old man, was arrested and booked into Lafayette Parish Correctional Center for stealing 12 squirrel monkeys last month from a zoo in Louisiana, multiple news outlets are reporting. The monkeys continue to be at large and the police are trying to trace them down, ABC News says.
George Matthew Oldenburg, the owner of Zoosiana, the zoo in Louisiana, said that he does not know Randall. He also couldn’t recall a connection between him or anyone at the zoo with Randall.
Who is Joseph Randall?
Joseph Randall is a 61-year-old man who is currently booked at the Lafayette Parish Correctional Center.
He has been charged with burglary and 12 counts of cruelty to animals. Since the monkeys went missing last month, a combination of investigative work and surveillance video led the police to Randall.
ABC News says that the suspect first targeted an exhibit of marmoset monkeys but failed after the monkey escaped the enclosure. The monkey was later rescued by the zoo officials. The suspect then broke open the enclosure of squirrel monkeys and managed to steal 12 of the 38 lodged in it.
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The report further states that the suspect brought tools to cut the wire and break locks of the enclosure. Investigators found a burlap sack at the scene from which they concluded that the suspect took the monkeys in them.
As for the monkeys, investigators say that questioning Randall about it has been unproductive so far.
Since they went missing, the police asked people to come up with information on the monkeys. Oldenburg, the Zoosiana owner, said that he found it strange that no one has come forward with information on the monkeys yet.
