The antics of a ‘vicious’ escaped Capuchin monkey named Teeko made for an unusual early morning at a small truck stop in Ohio yesterday.
Five year old Teeko escaped from the home of his owner Anthony Thomas in Braceville Township, Ohio, on the evening of Sunday, June 8, according to WKRN.
Teeko was spotted next on Monday, June 9, around 6:40 a.m. by a truck driver in the parking lot at the Marathon on Braceville Robinson Road. The monkey was spotted running between semi trucks and baring its teeth in an aggressive manner.
The trucker reported the monkey sighting to truck stop worker Jessica Richardson, who had just arrived at work and was skeptical. “I thought they were joking around with me,” she said.
Later, though, Richardson saw Teeko for herself and called 911. You can hear her 911 call below.
Eventually, Thomas arrived at the truck stop to try to recapture Teeko, but Richardson said that the monkey wasn’t cooperating. “As the owner came up, the monkey seen him and the monkey took off this direction, behind the red and blue truck, and the owner chased him all the way back around the parking lot,” she said.
“I was shocked, like, I thought the monkey might come up to somebody or get taken or we have huge semis driving through here all the time. I was like, ‘What if a semi accidentally hit it?” said Richardson.
By around 8 a.m., Thomas had recaptured Teeko and he is safe at home recovering from his adventures.
This is not the first time that an exotic animal has escaped at a truck stop in recent years. In January 2018, a zebra that was being transported to a ranch escaped from its trailer and took a midnight stroll at a Love’s in Columbia, Tennessee.
For more about Teeko and his truck stop adventures — including surveillance footage of Thomas chasing him through the fuel pumps — check out the report below.