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By Thomas Kika
Weekend Staff Writer
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A Florida woman was arrested on Monday after getting caught on a security camera stealing an infant monkey from a pet store.
Robert's Pet Shop in Homestead, Florida, a city southwest of Miami, was caring for two 5-week-old marmosets, worth around $7,000 apiece. On Friday afternoon, employees noticed that one of the young animals was missing when it came time to feed them, with a review of security footage showing that a woman had stolen it.
"Once we reviewed the surveillance video camera, we see her coming over and grabbing, tucking the monkey, and just walking straight out the front door with it," store manager Lazaro Sardinas told Local 10 News.
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The woman in the security footage was later identified as 53-year-old Milena Wood, a local resident and customer at the pet store for over 15 years. Per the video, she appeared to stuff one of the infant marmosets into a bag before quickly departing the store.
"I would have never thought it would have been her," Sardinas added.
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Officials with the Homestead Police Department said that at one point over the weekend, Wood reached out to the pet store in an attempt to arrange a deal for the return of the animal. This allowed law enforcement to trace the number and determine her identity.
Wood was taken into police custody on Monday and now faces three counts of grand theft. The other two charges stemmed from separate robberies at two stores along Bird Road on June 26, in which she is accused of stealing coral with a total value of around $3,000.
As of Tuesday, Local 10 reported that Wood was being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center in lieu of $15,000 bond.
Newsweek has reached out to the Homestead Police Department via email for comment.
In January, police were called to the Dallas Zoo after two emperor tamarin monkeys were found to be missing from their enclosure in what staff feared was a theft. This occurred after a string of other odd occurrences at the zoo, involving holes being cut in the enclosures of a clouded leopard and a group of langur monkeys. The former incident prompted a zoo shutdown as workers searched for the animals.
Dallas police later arrested 24-year-old Davion Irvin after finding the monkeys in a vacant home to which he had taken them. He later admitted to cutting the holes in the prior incidents and said that he had intended to steal more animals from the zoo.
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