Strange

Man Busted for Fake Monkey Deportation

by Jordan Yerman | October 17, 2008 at 08:36 am

539 views | 2 Recommendations | 6 comments

It must have seemed like a great idea at the time: when ordered by a court to deport your pet marmoset back to Mexico, stage a fake backdrop and photograph your simian friend therein. Produce the image in court and hope it works.

Alas, it did not work for a Los Angeles man, as the judge saw through the faux photo and ordered the true deportation of the marmoset, with no further... monkeying around. (Sorry)

Not that I (or anyone at NowPublic) advocates deception in order to keep custody of an illegal primate, but perhaps the guy should have gone easier on the green, red, and white... or cleaned his place so that it looked like no monkeys were living there.

Grigorian has told authorities that he considers Cheeta to be a member of his family, but state Department of Fish and Game officials say the animal has got to go.

In January, police arrested Grigorian for allegedly shouting criminal threats in front of a house in Van Nuys. As police took Grigorian into custody, they discovered the 7-year-old black-and-white male marmoset, who shares the same name as Tarzan's chimp sidekick.

Further investigation revealed another problem -- Grigorian lacked a monkey permit.

I had no dea that there was such a thing as a monkey permit. The Internet teaches us new stuff every day...

In a somewhat complicated plan, Grigorian agreed to surrender Cheeta to Fish and Game officers, who would transfer the animal to a courier who would then take him to Nevada. Grigorian told officials he would pick up Cheeta in Nevada and take him to a caretaker in Arizona.

Months later, however, Cheeta was back in town. On May 23, Burbank police stopped Grigorian for a traffic violation and spotted a monkey in the car, Van Eyk said.

... and to think that he almost got away with it.

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