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Police On The Prowl For Mischievous Underwear Thief Monkey In Lopburi With ฿500 Bounty

Police try to catch underwear thief monkey in Lopburi


We’ve previously covered stories about Lopburi’s monkeys drop-kicking a woman to steal her food. This time the police are on the prowl to catch a particularly mischievous monkey who is well-known by locals for stealing underwear.

Here’s the brief on this simian thief.


A well-known underwear thief with whom the locals have some beef



Image credit: Nick Steemans via Wikimedia Commons

You have to be very infamous to earn yourself a nickname for your deeds. In Lopburi, one monkey has earned that achievement for repeatedly stealing underwear from a local clothing store.

The 62-year-old owner said that she had to stop selling underwear because of all the theft.


Part of an ongoing effort to round-up monkeys in Lopburi



Image credit: Adam Jones via Wikimedia Commons

After the most recent incident of a Lopburi monkey drop-kicking a woman, the police have started capturing city monkeys.

Naturally, this includes our very naughty underwear thief as well.

Early morning on 2 April 2024, the police show up to the clothing store to try to catch the aforementioned thief. However, the monkey saw the cops closing in and quickly made its way up the building to hide.

The police would lie in wait for an opportunity, while the monkey would occasionally steal glances from his hiding spot. Eventually, the police would halt their monkey-capturing activities for the day during the afternoon.

The bounty for this monkey’s capture was also raised from ฿300 to ฿500.


A conundrum for the city


While the Lopburi monkeys no doubt bring in a fair share of tourism, their antics as of late have been too much for locals. Here’s hoping that the situation is resolved peacefully and without harm to humans or monkeys involved.

For more stories from Lopburi, check out this one from the Lopburi Zoo of an orangutan who asks a human visitor to throw away some garbage. Alternatively, this Lopburi ghost sighting made a local put up a one million baht bounty.


Cover image adapted from: Nick Steemans via Wikimedia Commons, Adam Jones via Wikimedia Commons