They were going bananas!
Viral photos showing wild monkeys on the loose in New Jersey sent cops on a frantic search this week — but officials now say it was likely an AI-generated hoax.
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, PIX11 reported.
One image showed two monkeys rummaging through a dumpster.
Officers scoured the area and inside the buildings, but the animals were nowhere to be found, Miranda said.
“Officers have not located any monkeys,” he told the outlet, noting the city’s animal control officers also received a similar bogus report on Wednesday.
“Any photos or videos posted on social media regarding this incident are likely AI-generated.”
While the fake sightings are still being investigated, police labeled the incident “a hoax.”
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 “be careful” due to the digital fakes.
“Use AI for the right things, not something like this,” she told News12 New Jersey.
“Because when something really does happen, officers are going to take their time coming out because it could possibly be AI, something that’s false.”
Local resident Richard Chapman also blasted the stunt for wasting police resources and time.
“Having the police come over here for something that’s not really real, it’s wasting their time when they could be doing other things with their time,” he said.
“I 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.”
The incident comes amid nationwide police warnings about a viral TikTok craze dubbed the “AI Homeless Man Prank” — a brazen stunt where people generate images of a homeless man inside their homes or outside their doorways and then report it to authorities.
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