Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Give That Cop a Banana
The Mesa Arizona police are up to some serious monkey busness.
Truelove is spearheading the department's request to purchase and train a capuchin monkey, considered the second smartest primate to the chimpanzee. The department is seeking about $100,000 in federal grant money to put the idea to use in Mesa SWAT operations....Fair enough until I read this:
...Weighing only 3 to 8 pounds with tiny humanlike hands and puzzle-solving skills, Truelove said it could unlock doors, search buildings and find suicide victims on command. Dressed in a Kevlar vest, video camera and two-way radio, the small monkey would be able to get into places no officer or robot could go.
The monkey, which costs $15,000...And that is before it is trained. That's a lot of money for a monkey, does that include the diamond studded collar?
