A trip to a Spirit Halloween store in Plano turned into a wild scene Monday night after a pet monkey escaped its owner and began swinging through the rafters.
What’s usually a store filled with fake frights became a real-life spectacle as shoppers watched the animal climb poles, swing from wires and crawl across the ceiling for more than 30 minutes.
“This was animal kingdom live,” said Arlene Pinkston, who was shopping with her daughters at the Spirit Halloween off U.S. 75.
“My daughter looked up and she said, ‘What in the world?’ and she’s like, ‘Is that a real monkey?’ and I looked up and said, ‘Well, it’s got a diaper on so I guess it is real,’” Pinkston said with a laugh.
Pinkston said she took out her phone to record the moment, certain no one would believe her otherwise.
“It’ll definitely be one that I will not forget anytime soon,” she said.
Jimmy Harris, a store employee, said the pet monkey appeared to have gotten spooked by the store’s animatronic decorations and ran away from its owner.
“It was entertaining,” Harris said. “A lot of people just stood and watched it for like 30 minutes, the whole time, they were like, ‘monkey,’ and we had kids trying to catch it.”
Plano police were called to the store. In a statement, officers said, “He observed the monkey swinging from the rafters wearing a diaper. Eventually, a cookie was offered to the monkey by the owner, and was able to gain control of it.”
Pinkston said she wasn’t there for the end of the chaos.
“It had jumped down on the floor and ran past my leg, and at that point I was like, OK, I’ve had enough,” she said.
Police said the monkey was not injured and posed no threat to anyone.
In a statement, Lisa Barr, Spirit Halloween’s VP of Marketing wrote, “Our team responded quickly and contacted local authorities, who arrived promptly on the scene. In a rather unexpected turn, the monkey was safely coaxed with a cookie. The monkey was tagged with identification, and returned to its owner without incident.”
“We’re grateful to our staff and local responders for handling the situation swiftly and safely. While this is certainly not a typical day at Spirit Halloween, we’re glad it ended on a positive note,” wrote Barr.
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