MONKEY DEFIES POLICEMEN

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28284, 23 May 1957, Page 7

MONKEY DEFIES POLICEMEN

Unrehearsed Show At Industries Fair

Policemen stationed at‘the New Zealand Industries Fair have had a fairly quiet time in the last two weeks; but it ended yesterday afternoon when Wendy, a monkey, seized an opportunity to escape from the Magic Cave. Wendy ran only a few yards before jumping into the caravan which is the police station at the fair.

Constable R. C. Reddock took the first assault. Wendy jumped on to his back. His colleagues. Constables R. Currie and A. Laverick, joined him in an attempted capture. Handcuffs were produced before it was realised that Wendy’s agile limbs would defy any attempted manacling. Wendy scattered flowers around the caravan, clawed a policeman’s coat, and made a general mess of the floor, as well as ruining a police diary. Cornered in a sink, Wendy was covered with a police raincoat and a sack, but maintained a hold so tenacious that two policemen could not extract her without harm, and that was something they were trying to avoid. Wendy suddenly left the sink. Equally rapidly, the policemen left the caravan, slamming the door behind them. When Wendy’s owner, Mr H. Long, who runs a private zoo at Addington, arrived in answer to an urgent telephone summons, the policemen discovered that so great-had been their hurry that they had locked the door from the inside.

Mr Long and a cautious constable climbed through a back window into the caravan, but Mr Long’s presence ended the need for caution, for Wendy went to him quietly, and equally quietly went back to her cage. “She is quite domesticated, and often has afternoon tea with us,” said Mr Long of his pet. The policemen had different thoughts.