Mar 12th 2010 By Chip Carter

In a scenario worthy of a
Magilla Gorilla cartoon, a dope-fiend monkey is on the lam in Tampa Bay and has eluded capture for more than a year, despite being spotted by hundreds of people and shot at least a dozen times with tranquilizer darts.
"All we've done is manage to turn him into a drug addict," said lead trapper Vernon Yates, owner of Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Seminole, Fla.
"I've darted him at least a dozen times myself; for whatever reason, the drugs don't seem to be affecting him. He manages to climb over fence after fence after fence and by the time you go to these people's houses and ask permission to go in the backyard, he's gone."
The monkey, thought to be a male
rhesus macaque about three years old, has been turning up in backyards and public places -- and evading trappers -- for months.
Where he's been spotted
The first published report came in January 2009, when the unnamed critter was first seen in Clearwater, FL. Most recently, the monkey (who really needs a name) popped up March 7 in a banyan tree in a swanky neighborhood in St. Petersburg, where a woman reportedly
chased him with a banana.
Read about more monkey sightings and see a video of the little fella after the jump.