Well this is quite peculiar.
A 29 year-old Dublinman has been sentenced to 80 hours community service for being caught in possession of a stolen monkey when stopped by Gardaí in October. He was given an additional 100 hours community service owning a stun gun.
Paul Murtagh is a trainee football coach, and while he didn't actually steal the monkey, the Irish Independent reports that he admitted to being 'reckless' with regard to where it came from.
He claimed that he picked the monkey up from the back garden of a house after giving a group of people a lift. The monkey is a Marmoset worth €1,500 and was reunited with his owners after the Gardaí found him in Murtagh's car boot. It had been taken in burglary earlier that day, on 1 October.
However, reports that the monkey escaped Garda barracks when the cast of Friends started singing The Lion Sleeps Tonight seem to be unfounded.
