US Police said on Friday they arrested a man suspected of stealing a ring-tailed lemur from the San Francisco Zoo, where officials rewarded a 5-year-old boy who helped recapture the endangered primate with a lifetime membership.
The theft of Maki, an arthritic 21-year-old lemur, made the news on Wednesday in San Francisco and beyond when zoo officials reported the animal missing and found evidence of forced entry at his enclosure.
Five-year-old James Trinh was unaware of the headlines when leaving his preschool on Thursday in Daly City, about 8km from the zoo, and exclaimed, "There's a lemur! There's a lemur!" Cynthia Huang, director of the Hope Lutheran Day School, told the San Francisco Chronicle on Friday.
![Maki was spotted by a 5-year-old boy at his playcentre. The boy and his family have been given liftetime membership to San Francisco Zoo. Photo / via AP](https://www.nzherald.co.nz/resizer/v2/A3BQ3SZ6TANPYPPYJCFFRN55DQ.jpg?auth=9fe09dbe8ff6139761e16178e36602867f91f31b20928edbfbb3066f1e048198&width=16&height=12&quality=70&smart=true)
Huang was skeptical at first. "I thought, Are you sure it's not a raccoon?" she said.
Maki scurried from the parking lot into the school's playground and took refuge in a miniature play house, as the school called police who quickly alerted animal control and zoo officials. The children, parents and teachers watched as caretakers arrived and coaxed the lemur into a transport cage, Huang said.