Monkey Business in Eutawville

Most monkeys go bananas. Ava wanted caffeine.

The pet spider monkey’s great escape turned the quiet streets of Eutawville, South Carolina, into the set of a screwball comedy — complete with a chase, a crowd, and one quick-thinking town clerk armed with a cup of coffee.

On the morning of October 4, Casey Hill woke up thinking about fishing, not primates. As the town clerk, she’d planned to help with the Eutawville Crappie Classic and Fall Fest — until she heard whispers about a monkey on the loose.

“I figured, why not?” Hill told the Post & Courier. “I’ve done a lot of things, but I’ve never caught a monkey.”

So she rounded up a small posse — Mayor Brandon Weatherford and his wife, Laura — and followed the trail. First stop: The Twirl restaurant, where the runaway spider monkey had reportedly been spotted.

Sure enough, there was Ava, hanging off the back of a vehicle near the barbershop, leash still attached. Hill started flagging down cars, trying to keep the jittery primate safe.

Then Ava made a break for it — to the bank. “She was hollering,” Hill said. “You could tell she was scared.”

Instead of panicking, Hill went with her instincts — and her morning brew.

“I set my coffee on the ground, took the lid off, and stepped back,” she said.

The aroma did its job. Ava paused, curious. One sip later, Hill gently stepped on the leash, and the chase was over — though not without some high-pitched protest from the caffeinated captive.

The monkey’s owner soon arrived, identifying her as Ava and whisking her back home, no worse for wear (and probably wide awake).

For a town of just 241 people, Eutawville has more than its share of animal encounters. There’s Booty, the leashed opossum who’s a festival regular. And lately, a black bear’s been seen digging through The Twirl’s dumpster.

Still, Hill has her limits. “I don’t do snakes,” she said flatly.

While Ava’s coffee run ended happily, the story raises bigger questions about keeping exotic pets.

Spider monkeys — native to Central and South American rainforests — are social, intelligent animals that belong in the canopy, not a kitchen. “They are gentle, beautiful, social monkeys that belong in their natural ecosystems,” said Lisa Jones-Engel of PETA.

Experts estimate that around 15,000 primates live in private hands across the U.S. South Carolina doesn’t yet require registration for smaller species, though a bill filed for the 2025 legislative session could change that.

For now, Ava’s back home — hopefully sipping water instead of espresso. And Eutawville has another story for the books: the day a spider monkey ran errands downtown, only to be outsmarted by a cup of joe.