Escaped animals · Elizabeth
Elizabeth’s tomato-throwing chimpanzee
Contemporary reports; date and capture confirmed by a second, independently filed wire dispatch
In Elizabeth, New Jersey, city dog catcher Franklin Hauck ended a pursuit by netting an escaped chimpanzee after police gunfire and a backyard chase, capturing it the morning of Wednesday, August 11, 1926.
The escape and capture
The chimpanzee broke its leash on a Monday afternoon. The next day it was discovered in the cellar of John Agostino’s home at 232 Center Street, prompting about twelve officers to chase it through yards and hedges and fire numerous revolver shots. The animal escaped after throwing ripe tomatoes at its pursuers.
On Wednesday morning Hauck found it near the city line. Using his stray-dog net and working with the owner, Leon Sholder of High Street, he caught it and took it to the city pound. Officials had not yet decided whether it would be returned to Sholder. A separate lumber-yard fatality printed beneath the story is unrelated.
An independent confirmation
A short Associated Press wire item, “Dog Catcher Catches Escaped Chimpanzee,” datelined Elizabeth, August 11, and printed the same day in the New Britain Herald of New Britain, Connecticut, corroborates the archived clipping without duplicating its wording. It said the chimpanzee had caused excitement in the southern section of the city “yesterday afternoon” — August 10 — prompting a pursuit by a dozen policemen who fired a score of revolver shots, and that Franklin Hauck, the dog catcher, captured the animal “this morning,” August 11. Read together with the archived clipping’s “Monday” escape and “Wednesday morning” capture, the dates line up: the chimpanzee broke loose Monday, August 9, 1926, was chased through yards on Tuesday, August 10, and was captured Wednesday, August 11 — fixing the year as 1926 independently of the source collection’s archival label.
Sources
- Unidentified newspaper, “Chimpanzee Captured by Elizabeth’s Dog Catcher,” Elizabeth dateline, August 11; the issue date is not visible.
- New Britain Herald (New Britain, Conn.), August 11, 1926, page 1, “Dog Catcher Catches Escaped Chimpanzee” — Chronicling America full text reviewed; a short AP wire report independently confirming the capture date, officer count, and gunfire.
This account is a complete paraphrase of the relevant article, cross-checked against the wire dispatch above.