Man pleads guilty to breaking into California zoo to steal rare lemur

A Newport Beach man pleaded to a federal criminal charge for breaking into the Santa Ana Zoo after hours and stealing North America’s oldest-living ring-tailed lemur in captivity in order to keep the endangered animal as a pet.

Aquinas Kasbar, 19, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of unlawfully taking an endangered species. United States District Judge Andrew J. Guilford has scheduled an October 28 sentencing hearing, where Kasbar will face a statutory maximum sentence of one year in federal prison and a $100,000 fine.

Kasbar admitted in his plea agreement that he broke into the Santa Ana Zoo on July 27, 2018 after it had closed for the day. Kasbar used bolt cutters to cut a hole in the zoo’s enclosures for lemurs and capuchin monkeys, which enabled several of the animals to escape, though they were later recovered, court documents state.

Kasbar then stole Isaac, a 32-year-old, ring-tailed lemur (lemur catta), and North America’s oldest ring-tailed lemur in captivity. (A lemur’s life span typically is 20 to 25 years.) The ring-tailed lemur is on a list of the 25 most endangered primates, and ring-tailed lemurs are endangered, in part, because of the illegal pet trade, the plea agreement states.

Kasbar then placed Isaac in a plastic drawer that lacked ventilation holes, court papers state. The next day, Kasbar abandoned the animal in front of a Newport Beach hotel, leaving him in the same plastic drawer with two notes placed on it, which read, “Lemur (with tracker)” and “This belongs to the Santa Ana Zoo it was taken last night please bring it to police,” according to court documents.

Kasbar’s actions resulted in a loss to the Santa Ana Zoo of approximately $8,486. Isaac later was returned unharmed to the zoo.

Kasbar became famous for surfing an air mattress during a massive wave which happened about two months after the lemur was removed from the zoo.

Surfing Air Mattress at The Wedge from Untitled.work on Vimeo.

According to the Los Angeles Times  police linked Kasbar to stolen cash and expensive watches and jewellery after a rash of robberies.

 

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Peg Fong is also in recovery from newspapers

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