Offbeat | Missing zoo meerkat case solved, three charged in Australia

It wasn’t grand theft. It was tiny.

But the snatching of a baby meerkat from a zoo has not only become a major story in the Australian city of Perth, it has led to the arrest of three people.

In September, Perth Zoo was ready to publicly show off its new month-old meerkitten to the public and media, but a day before its planned debut, it was gone.

Worried zoo staff said the male baby, who hadn’t yet been named, had apparently got out of its nest box, and feared it may have been snatched by a bird of prey.

But the other possible reason for its disappearance — theft — was also explored.

Police were called to investigate, and two days later they found the missing meerkat — at a house 130 kilometers away, in the town of Beverley.

Police charged two people who had visited the zoo over the furry heist. Jesse Ray Hooker, 23, was charged with stealing, while his friend Aimee Cummins, also 23, with receiving stolen goods.

On Wednesday police charged a third person, a 31-year-old woman, also from Beverley, with possessing stolen property.

Hooker appeared in Perth Magistrates Court where defense lawyer Chad Silver said that he “fell in love” with the newborn meerkat as it ran toward him in its enclosure and had scooped it up and put it in his cooler bag.

Silver told the court Hooker was in the process of returning the meerkat when the police called. In the tiny town of Beverley, population 1,700, even a secret that small was apparently too hard to keep.

“The simplicity of the offence meant the police were able to capture and follow up the meerkat very quickly,” Silver told the court.