Police mentioned have mentioned they’re nonetheless investigating, however the man has not been linked to the suspicious loss of life of an endangered vulture on the zoo in January.
DALLAS — (AP) — A 24-year-old man now linked to an uncommon string of crimes that kept the Dallas Zoo on the lookout for missing animals advised police that after he swiped two monkeys from their enclosure, he took them onto the town’s gentle rail system to make his getaway, court docket information present.
Davion Irvin additionally mentioned he loves animals and that if he’s launched from jail, he would steal extra, the documents mentioned.
Irvin, who remained jailed Tuesday on $25,000 bond, was arrested final week after asking questions at a downtown Dallas aquarium about animals there. He is charged with six counts of animal cruelty and two counts of housebreaking. An legal professional listed for Irvin in court docket information didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Irvin advised police that on the night time of Jan. 29, he waited till darkish, jumped a fence to get onto zoo grounds, lower the metallic mesh of an enclosure and took the two emperor tamarin monkeys, in accordance with arrest warrant affidavits . He then received on the town’s gentle rail earlier than strolling to the vacant house the place he mentioned he saved his animals.
Acting on a tip from the general public, police discovered the monkeys named Bella and Finn on Jan. 31, the day after they had been found lacking, on the empty house in Lancaster, a Dallas suburb about 15 miles (24 kilometers) south of the zoo. Multiple cats and pigeons had been additionally in the house, in addition to useless feeder fish and fish meals that had disappeared from a staff-only space of the zoo earlier in January however wasn’t reported stolen on the time, affidavits mentioned.
Irvin has been charged in two of the odd occasions over a span of a number of weeks on the zoo and is linked to a different, police mentioned. In the taking of the monkeys, Irvin faces one rely of housebreaking and 6 counts of animal cruelty — three for every monkey. He additionally faces a housebreaking cost in relation to the escape of a clouded leopard named Nova, who was discovered missing Jan. 13. A lower was discovered in her enclosure, and the zoo closed as a search was launched. She was discovered later that day close to her habitat.
Irvin advised investigators that he’d needed to take Nova however that he was solely in a position to pet her earlier than she received on high of her enclosure, an affidavit mentioned.
Police mentioned they’ve linked Irvin to the cutting of an enclosure for langur monkeys, found after Nova went lacking, however he hasn’t been charged in that. None of the langur monkeys escaped.
In the times main as much as the emperor tamarin monkeys being taken, a person had been elevating suspicions on the zoo, asking questions not solely about shifting and caring for such monkeys, however in regards to the clouded leopard that had escaped, an affidavit mentioned. He was additionally seen coming into workers buildings close to the monkeys’ enclosure.
After the monkeys had been found lacking Jan. 30, police launched a photograph and video from the zoo of a person they mentioned they needed to speak to in regards to the lacking monkeys. The man in the pictures — who police later mentioned was Irvin — prompted the tip that led police to the vacant house the place the monkeys had been discovered Jan. 31. An affidavit mentioned the tip got here from a caller who mentioned a number of attendees of a church acknowledged the person from the pictures as somebody who frequented a vacant house owned by the church.
Police arrested Irvin on Thursday just a few blocks from The Dallas World Aquarium after he’d been there asking questions on animals on the aquarium and a employee acknowledged him from news protection.
Police have mentioned they’re nonetheless investigating, however Irvin has not been linked to the suspicious loss of life of an endangered vulture on the zoo in January.
Meanwhile police in Louisiana introduced the arrest Tuesday of a 61-year-old man in the case of 12 squirrel monkeys that had been found lacking Jan. 29 from their enclosure at Zoosiana in Broussard, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) west of Baton Rouge. Police mentioned the lacking monkeys haven’t but been discovered.
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