Case of purloined primates baffles cops, shop owner

Jen Lawson

Wednesday, May 5, 2004 | 10:27 a.m.

It's a conspiracy, the victim said, involving at least eight people, including a man he has dubbed "Mr. X" -- and two monkeys.

For the past four days, Joseph Sy has been playing amateur sleuth, trying to sort out the mystery of who stole two monkeys from his exotic pet store and then returned them in a sealed cardboard box.

"I'm scared for my life and my family's lives," Sy said while sitting in his office at Exotic Pet Stop at 4253 E. Charleston Blvd. near Lamb Boulevard. "We need to put these people behind bars."

Lt. Larry Spinosa of the Metro Police property crimes section said he's never handled a case like this one.

"Someone borrows (monkeys), then brings them back. It's very strange," he said.

Sy suspects the monkey snatcher is a man who Thursday applied for a job taking care of primates and reptiles. He had a resume that showed he had more than two years' experience working with such animals at a well-known pet store in Phoenix, Sy said.

One of Sy's store managers called Sy at home to discuss the applicant's qualifications. Sy was impressed and gave the manager approval to hire the man, who began working right away.

Bilboa, a squirrel monkey, and Asia, a spider monkey, had been moved into cages in the store's back room while their regular cages were cleaned.

Sy believes that while other employees were distracted, the newly hired employee took the monkeys out of the cages and slipped out the rear door.

A manager immediately noticed the monkeys and the employee were gone and called Sy and Metro.

Sy said he was eating dinner with his family at a buffet and left so hastily after getting the call that his wife and children were stranded at the restaurant with no money and no way to get home.

"I almost threw up," he said. "I had muscle pain in my chest. My feeling was that I was betrayed."

When he got to the store he looked at the man's resume and saw right away that it was bogus, he said. It didn't have any phone numbers on it and listed only two jobs, both at pet shops.

Sy began compiling a list of prime suspects, which included current and former employees. On the list was a woman who used to work for him whom Sy said was obsessed with monkeys, animal rights activists and rival exotic animal dealers.

And on Friday he got a call from another former employee who wanted to talk to him face to face. They met at a gas station. The man told Sy he had a night vision camera and video equipment and he was going to help him work on the case.

"He said, 'You're going to get your monkeys back,' " Sy recalled.

Sy determined that the rogue employee was related to an exotic-animal dealer, Mr. X, whom Sy considered a friend as well as a business associate. Sy now considers him "the mastermind" behind the theft of the monkeys and the coverup.

Mr. X is "a very ambitious person who wants to start a very big, multi-million animal entertainment business in Las Vegas," Sy said. Sy trusted him, he said. Mr. X wasn't even on his list of suspects.

There was another twist Saturday. An unidentified man left a rambling, five-minute message on the store's answering machine Saturday accusing Sy of orchestrating the monkey theft in order to get publicity and an insurance payout.

"You either sold the monkeys or they died," the man said. "You guys don't know how to handle monkeys. You don't know how to handle fish. I'm going to figure out how to report you for insurance fraud."

Sy brushed off the accusation, saying the monkeys weren't insured. Even if they were, he said, it wouldn't cover employee theft.

He said he thought the caller was another rival exotic pet dealer who was jealous of the attention being paid to Sy and his store.

"It just shows that this industry is a tough industry because the pay is low and the businesses aren't very profitable," he said. "What I'm trying to get to is: Does Mr. X and the caller have any connection?"

Sy said he had received a call Sunday from an anonymous man who said the monkeys had been dropped off behind Sy's other store, which he expects to open within the next few months.

Sy called Metro and met officers there. They found Bilboa and Asia in a box. They appeared unharmed.

"Asia is like an infant," Sy said. "She was just shaking."

He believes other former disgruntled employees who are familiar with the care of exotic animals harbored the monkeys in the three days that they were gone.

But Spinosa isn't so sure he buys Sy's conspiracy theory. The spider monkey was valued at $12,000 and the squirrel monkey was about $5,000.

"That's not much money for all those people to be involved," he said.

Police determined that the name on the rogue employee's resume was false. Detectives are trying to determine his identity.

Maybe a buyer who had been lined up for the monkeys backed out, Spinosa suggested.

"We really don't know, but we'd sure like to talk to whoever was involved," he said.

Sy, who lives in Henderson, said he has requested extra police patrols of his neighborhood. He said he's not certain why someone would want to steal his monkeys, and that frightens him.

He is offering a $10,000 reward "for the full conviction of the mastermind and all involved," he said.