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Police hunt for man seen eating Doritos at Dallas zoo, believes he is behind tamarin monkeys' theft

'Dallas Police, with the help of the Lancaster Police Department, located the two missing tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo,' a statement said

DALLAS, TEXAS: The two missing emperor tamarin monkeys have been found and returned to The Dallas Zoological Park on Tuesday, January 31. The monkeys were found hours after police released a photo of a man they are looking for. He was seen munching on a bag of Doritos as they kept looking into a series of strange happenings at the Dallas Zoo at around the same time when primates were believed to have "deliberately" removed from their enclosure on Sunday, January 29.

However, Dallas authorities said that he is not currently being investigated as a suspect in the theft of the monkeys, for which they believe somebody cut through the fencing surrounding the monkey enclosure to steal the primates, as reported by TMZ. It is yet unknown if the incident has anything to do with the zoo's rare vulture's death and a clouded leopard that also fled its confinement.

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'Monkeys found, have been returned to zoo': Dallas Zoo officials revealed

On February 1, police said that the two missing monkeys from the Dallas Zoo were found hours after they released the photo of a person they wanted to speak to. The primates were found unharmed on January 31 in a deserted home close to Lancaster, Texas. The police searched the house after receiving a tip, according to a statement obtained by the BBC. "We are thrilled beyond belief to share that our two emperor tamarin monkeys have been found," the zoo stated. The tamarins would be examined by veterinarians on Tuesday evening, they said, adding that police "called our team to come secure and transport the tamarins back to the Zoo." 

"Dallas Police, with the help of the Lancaster Police Department, located the two missing tamarin monkeys from the Dallas Zoo at an abandoned home in Lancaster. Pictured is one of the animals still inside the closet of the house. The monkeys have been returned to the zoo," police said in their statement.

Dallas police hunt for man caught eating Doritos

The discovery came after Dallas police earlier on Tuesday urged the public's assistance in identifying a guy caught by CCTV strolling about the zoo prior to the disappearance of the animals. Police had released a photo of a person they wanted to speak to in connection with the missing primates but it was not clear if that was related or if anyone was in custody. 

Series of unexplained occurrences

The Dallas Zoo has had a series of unexplained occurrences since January 13, when police believe someone cut a hole in the fencing surrounding a snow leopard's habitat and a langur monkey enclosure, but no animals were let out. Later, Nova the snow leopard was discovered close to her habitat. Following the discovery of Pin, an endangered vulture who was 35 years old, the zoo declared that the death was not believed to be "natural," reported Daily Mail.