Well-dressed Visitor

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31333, 1 April 1967, Page 1

Well-dressed Visitor

CN Z Press Association> AUCKLAND, Mar. 31. A smartly dressed chimpanzee today escaped from its owner’s car and paid a short but uproarious visit to a wallpaper shop in an Auckland suburb. Shuffling quietly into an unattended section of Avondale Points and Papers, Ltd., the monkey, Charlie the Chimp, scooped a bundle of paper rolls and started throwing them round the room. Passers-by who had seen him ran down the footpath to the shop, stood openmouthed as he pranced between the display stands tossing paper rails in the air and squealing with delight. A Mr North, who was serving a customer in the busy section of the large partitioned shop, was not aware of the monkey business going on until after the chimp had been at work for about a minute.

“Then I heard children I cheering and went in and had a look,” he said. “There was the chimp sitting among a pile of wallpaper watched by a huge gathering of school children. I rushed up and closed the front door, and then grabbed his lead.” Meanwhile Charlie’s owner, Mr A. C. Horobin, of Glen Eden, returned to his car and found the door open and the five-year-old chimpanzee missing “It knew it wouldn’t be hard to find him,” said Mr Horobin, who is a professional animal trainer. “I. looked down the road and saw a group of about 60 kids crowded round a shop. I said, ‘There’s Charlie.’” Charlie is one of the three chimpanzees Mr Horobin owns and trains. “He’s never done it before, 'and I quite often take him with me when I go shopping.” said Mr Horobin. “1 never lock the door and he is usually content to stay in the car.”

Charlie, nattily dressed in check trousers and a two-tone brown and yellow jumper, is estimated to have caused about £5O worth of damage.