Florida

Kinkajou Attack on Florida Man 911 Calls Released

"And it attacked your boyfriend?" the 911 operator asks.

Officials have released 911 calls from last month's kinkajou attack at an apartment in which a Florida man was injured.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said the exotic kinkajou, which is native to Central and South America, bit and scratched a man at his apartment in Lake Worth Beach on July 25.

"I have a lady on 911. She's saying that a lemur is in her house. They have it trapped in," a 911 operator says on one of the released calls, WPTV reports.

"A lemur?" a dispatcher replies. "There's not a lemur in her house, but go ahead."

The 911 operator then says the animal, mistakenly identified as a lemur, attacked the caller's boyfriend, 37-year-old Michael Litersky.

"I mean, if she wants someone to come out, then check it out," the dispatcher tells the 911 operator. "I don't know what we're gonna do with it."

In a second call, the 911 operator talks to Gillian Hicks, the victim's girlfriend.

"It's in our bathroom," Hicks says. "Like, we had to chase it in there."

"And it attacked your boyfriend?" the 911 operator asks.

"Yeah, he went to leave and open the door and it, like, came at him," Hicks says. "It was waiting, like, outside of our door."

Hicks said the animal showed up outside the couple's home the previous night. Litersky gave it some watermelon to eat.

FWC said the next morning, while Litersky was trying to leave for work, the kinkajou bit him on the foot and scratched his calf and shin.

The couple managed to trap the exotic animal in a bathroom, where FWC officers, along with Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office deputies and animal control personnel, were able to capture it.

The kinkajou was taken to a licensed FWC facility.

FWC said it has not been able to locate any possible owners with Class III permits in the area where the animal was found.

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