Police And Thieves And..... Gorillas!

Johannesburg, South Africa, July 1997

Max, a 26 years old, 190 kg (418 pound) male gorilla got involved in some really weird action on Friday, July 18. A desperate robber was being chased by police through Johannesburg Zoo. As the policemen were gaining on him he probably thought he needed a good hiding place so he jumped a fence and entered Max's and his partner Lisa's enclosure. Naturally Max wasn't too happy about this intrusion, and when three policemen followed the robber into the enclosure the robber opened fire upon the police and of course they fired back at him. This got Max really pissed. He didn't want no shoot-out on his turf, so he jumped the robber. The terrified robber started firing at Max and in the heat of the moment Max probably couldn't tell the good guys from the bad, or maybe he just didn't care, and turned on the policemen. He managed to KO one of the policemen and biting one of the others in the buttocks, the arm and the hand, before he went down hit by three slugs from the robbers weapon.

Zoo officials loaded Max onto a truck serving as an animal ambulance and rushed him off to one of the city's top private hospitals where he was X-rayed.

He had been hit in the lower face, in the shoulder and straight through the neck. Veterinary surgeons undertook a delicate operation, removing bullet fragments from the gorilla.

"It's terrible," said zoo spokeswoman Jacqui Thompson. "Our reaction is shock, disbelief, horror, anger." The two policemen wounded by the gorilla as well as the robber, who got shot in the hip by the policemen were also being treated at the same hospital. Later on Max could leave the hospital and return home to Lisa at the zoo to recuperate.

Score: Police: 1, Robber: 1, Gorilla: 2!