"Shortly after 8am," reported Florida's Sanford Police Department (SPD), "we received a call from a Sanford resident who lives in the Hidden Lakes subdivision, reporting that a monkey was eating mail out of a mailbox."

The mail-munching macaque caused the neighbourhood to go bananas when someone happened to see her "and recognise the situation was 'not normal'", SPD's Public Information Officer Shannon Cordingly told CBS News.

Wriggling with discomfort at the thought of taking on an aggressive primate, the rozzers sent out five officers alongside members of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

In what it may be assumed was a thrilling scene, officers blocked off the road with a patrol car and shook a water bottle at the monkey in an attempt to distract her, and lure her away from the street.

The tactic was successful, to a degree. The monkey leapt atop the patrol car, where she wrought havoc by tearing into the fittings and playing with the antenna.

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Later, Jeff Jacques, the licensed owner of the monkey – named Zeek – arrived at the scene. After 20 minutes of pursuit, Zeek jumped lovingly into his arms.

Jacques' macaque's attacks lacked malice, said the commission's investigator Steve McDaniel, despite tampering with mail being a felony offence in the US.

"[Zeek] was just playing, basically," he said. ®