{"id":331061,"date":"2025-10-25T07:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-25T07:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331061\/"},"modified":"2025-10-25T07:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-25T07:37:13","slug":"ai-generated-monkey-hoax-had-newark-cops-going-bananas-searching-for-loose-primates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/331061\/","title":{"rendered":"AI-generated monkey hoax had Newark cops going bananas searching for loose primates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>They were going bananas!<\/p>\n<p>Viral photos showing wild monkeys on the loose in New Jersey sent cops on a frantic search this week \u2014 but officials now say it was likely an AI-generated hoax. <\/p>\n<p>The phony images showing scores of primates running wild at Georgia King Village apartment complex in Newark triggered panicked calls to authorities, leading police on a frenzied hunt Thursday morning, according to Newark Public Safety Director Emanuel Miranda, <a href=\"https:\/\/pix11.com\/news\/local-news\/newark-reports-of-monkeys-on-the-loose-may-be-ai-driven-officials\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">PIX11 reported. <\/a><\/p>\n<p>The viral images of monkeys were likely AI-generated, police said. NJ 1015<\/p>\n<p>One image showed two monkeys rummaging through a dumpster. <\/p>\n<p>Officers scoured the area and inside the buildings, but the animals were nowhere to be found, Miranda said. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cOfficers have not located any monkeys,\u201d he told the outlet, noting the city\u2019s animal control officers also received a similar bogus report on Wednesday.  <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAny photos or videos posted on social media regarding this incident are likely AI-generated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Newark cops responded to the area after receiving reports of monkeys on the loose but didn\u2019t find anything.  PIX 11<\/p>\n<p id=\"35RIIR7FFNEWZNADO623L5QFNI\">While the fake sightings are still being investigated, police labeled the incident \u201ca hoax.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Hariette Guity, who works in an office near where the monkeys were reported, told the outlet she received a call from an alarmed coworker who advised her to \u201cbe careful\u201d due to the digital fakes. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cUse AI for the right things, not something like this,\u201d she<a href=\"https:\/\/newjersey.news12.com\/apparent-ai-generated-photos-send-newark-police-on-monkey-manhunt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> told News12 New Jersey.<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>The fake sightings are still being investigated.  PIX 11<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause when something really does happen, officers are going to take their time coming out because it could possibly be AI, something that\u2019s false.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Local resident Richard Chapman also blasted the stunt for wasting police resources and time. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving the police come over here for something that\u2019s not really real, it\u2019s wasting their time when they could be doing other things with their time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>The incident comes after the \u201cAI Homeless Man Prank\u201d craze blew up on social media.  PIX 11<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think that we need to us AI the right way and not play around too much and make things bigger than what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The incident comes amid nationwide police warnings <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/20\/lifestyle\/tiktoks-new-ai-homeless-man-prank-leads-to-arrests\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">about a viral TikTok craze<\/a> dubbed the \u201cAI Homeless Man Prank\u201d \u2014 a brazen stunt where people generate images of a homeless man inside their homes or outside their doorways and then report it to authorities. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They were going bananas! Viral photos showing wild monkeys on the loose in New Jersey sent cops on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":331062,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[738,5248,31650,401,37230,108356,159,67,132,68,1154,837],"class_list":{"0":"post-331061","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-artificial-intelligence","9":"tag-metro","10":"tag-monkeys","11":"tag-new-jersey","12":"tag-newark","13":"tag-pranks","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-us-news","19":"tag-wildlife"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115433664884879387","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}