PALM HARBOR, FL -- At the Rustic Oaks subdivison in Pinellas County, neighbors turning onto Westlake Drive pull over to talk to our WFTS news crew wondering why they're here.
Many ask, is it a break-in, or maybe a
car accident? Or perhaps, someone in the community was arrested?
Their mouths drop open, at the response. Monkey sighting. Again.
Pinellas County Deputies say a passerby called them Wednesday morning down the street, near Highlands Boulevard saying they spotted the macaque
running down the road. Then 45-minutes later, another caller reported seeing the monkey swinging from branch-to-branch at the top of a large
live oak tree near Rustic Oaks subdivision.
It's the latest sighting of a orange-colored macaque that seems to get around, quickly. Yesterday, neighbors say they saw the four-legged animal a mile east of Rustic Oaks off Tampa Road in
Palm Harbor. If it's the same monkey, he's also been seen off
30th Avenue in the
River Grove neighborhood in
Tampa near and in
Citrus Park.
But so far, despite the efforts of deputies and
Florida Fish and Wildlife, the primate is still roaming as he pleases. Pinellas deputies checked out Rustic Oaks this morning with no luck. The last caller says the monkey was headed south.
