Mummified monkey found during renovation of old department store
Workers renovating the old Dayton鈥檚 department store in downtown Minneapolis have discovered a mystery: the mummified remains of a monkey.
Crews found the carcass last week in an air duct on the seventh floor of the century-old building.
Cailin Rogers is a spokeswoman for the Dayton鈥檚 Project, an office, retail and restaurant complex going into the building. She says developers don鈥檛 know where the monkey came from or how it ended up in the air duct.
A historic site called Old Minneapolis posted a photo of the monkey on and solicited answers.
Alan Freed is one of the site鈥檚 co-administrators. He says one likely answer came from someone who posted on the page saying a longtime Dayton鈥檚 employee told him a monkey escaped from an eighth-floor pet store into the air conditioning ductwork in the 1960s.
Robbinsdale Mayor Regan Murphy told a similar story. His father told his mother, Monica Murphy, a tale from junior high wherein he and a buddy stole a monkey from the pet store at Dayton鈥檚.
鈥淢onkeys are not housebroken,鈥� Monica Murphy said. 鈥淭he monkey was discovered by Tom鈥檚 mom, and she said 鈥楢bsolutely not. Can鈥檛 have it, can鈥檛 keep it.鈥�
They brought the monkey back to the pet store and released it, never finding out what happened to it.
"They went inside the store, they put the monkey on an escalator, and took off," Murphy told . "We've always wondered what the hell happened to that monkey."