WDBJ7 Archive: The search for Oops the Monkey

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Twenty years ago this month, a fugitive was on the run in the Roanoke Valley, but it wasn’t someone suspected of a crime.

In this week’s visit to the WDBJ7 Archive, we recall the search for Oops the Monkey.

The news broke on Sunday July 2, 2006, after a Japanese Snow Monkey named Oops made a break for it. Following a routine cage cleaning, Oops let herself out by opening a door that hadn’t been secured properly.

The monkey’s disappearance touched off a week-long search.

David Jobe was the zoo’s Education Curator.

“You know they can travel a great distance, but we’re hoping she still wants to be close to the family and she’s still pretty close to the zoo,” Jobe told WDBJ7.

The zoo closed briefly, while searchers scoured the area.

Intense interest prompted several sightings, some more reliable than others.

“Many of you have been calling us asking whether the Mill Mountain Zoo monkey is still missing,” Anchor Natasha Ryan said during the late newscast on Thursday July 6. “News 7’s Justin McLeod has an update on the search. Justin, what have you found out.” Natasha asked. “Natasha, Oops is still on the loose,” McLeod reported.

On Friday, a nurse on the 10th floor of Carilion Roanoke Memorial spotted Oops behind the hospital.

Zoo staffers and animal control officers came up empty, but were encouraged by the sighting.

“If it’s browsing up here like they said it was, pulling leaves and possibly eating and foraging, if that’s the case, then it tells me at least it’s not injured,” said Mill Mountain Zoo Director Sean Greene. “At least it’s getting some nutrition and it’s active.”

Finally, one week after Oops disappeared, the break zoo officials were waiting for finally arrived.

Libby Martin saw Oops in the backyard of her home in Roanoke’s Garden City neighborhood and called 911.

“And I told my husband, I said Oh my goodness, I think that’s the monkey from the zoo,” Martin said. “It was really interesting, because you’re looking and you just don’t every day see a monkey in your tree outside your house.”

“After tracking Oops for about three hours from the Garden City area to the JB Fishburn Parkway, the monkey climbed about 90 feet in the air onto one of these trees and that’s when zoo officials knew that they had her,” Former WDBJ7 Reporter Jeremy Butterfield explained.

A Roanoke city ladder truck lifted the zoo’s consulting veterinarian close enough for him to tranquilize Oops with a dart.

“Had me within 25-30 feet of the monkey and the first dart went in,” Bill Poage said. “We had another one ready, but the first dart went in and five minutes later the monkey was on the ground.”

Oops spent a month in quarantine, but had no lingering effects from her week in the woods or her return to the zoo.

Zoo officials thanked the community for all the support they received during the search. And while it wasn’t the way they wanted to put the zoo on the map, they said, there were some positives.

“The fact that she’s back here safe now, that we can move on, that we’ve learned from our mistakes. We’ve made some changes in here to hopefully prevent this from happening again. And at the same time, I hope it’s renewed some interest in the Zoo because this is a gem up here that people sometime forget about,” Greene said.

Oops was back on public view by early August, and soon T-shirts featuring the mischievous monkey were on sale, with all proceeds going to the Mill Mountain Zoo.