New York loves a stories about animals in tiny NYC apartments...throw in a hipster and some cute monkeys, and this story can go far! Animal control seized six monkeys living in the Bronx Inwood yesterday, from the apartment of 26 year-old Orlando Lopez, a veterinary technician. The monkeys, two capuchins, two marmosets and two squirrel monkeys named Mandy, Michael, Marley, Chucky, Lulu and Belle, were purchased by Lopez from a breeder in Florida and kept in cages in the main room of his apartment. Animal control received an anonymous tip, but the Times reports that there were only mild noise complaints from neighbors, one of whom said, "Every night, my sister says, 'What on earth is all that crying?' We thought it was a baby, or maybe someone fighting. But a monkey? No. We never thought that it was that." And as it turned out, the BBC filmed the seizure because they were filming one of the animal control officers.
The Post captures a great photo of Lopez, looking forlorn, wearing a Von Dutch hat. He was distraught, calling them his "kids," "Could you imagine if someone came into your apartment and took everything you loved and cared for? Some vengeful, hateful person did this to me." Lopez: Did you break up with anyone lately? Annoy a neighbor with your youthful, Generation X ways? Animal control also seized Lopez's pet tarantula (no name given), which is also against the law to own as a pet, but he still has a Great Dane and some fish. And if anyone knows Orlando Lopez, Gothamist wants Andrew Krucoff to interview him for the Young Manhattanite Interview.
The last big animal incident in the city was the discovery of Ming the Bengal Tiger and Al the alligator in a Harlem apartment.
