33. Boston's King Kong
“My father worked for the Boston Fire Department. They get a call from the Franklin Park Zoo in late September about a young girl who a gorilla has mauled. This is the type of call they'd get regularly. When a gorilla jumps at the window, the child is startled, and the parents dial 911. As a couple of the other firefighters enter the zoo, my father observes a man sitting on a bench with a small child in his arms. He approaches the man, assuming this is what the call is for. The little girl has a scratch on her forehead and is sobbing, but she appears to be in good health. The man appears to have witnessed a ghost. So my father approaches the man and inquires about the situation. 'Little Joe is out,' says the man.
Little Joe is a 500-pound silverback gorilla in his adolescence. In Boston's streets, let loose. My father knows that he isn't qualified to manage a gorilla at this point, so he calls everyone. Two minutes later, the fire chief arrives and rushes out of his car, exclaiming, 'Mark, is this about a stupid gorilla!?' 'Yeah, but how did you hear that?' says my father. 'He's standing at the bus stop on Seaver Street!' says the chief. The SWAT squad arrives, hats on backward, M16s in hand, and my father, ever the joker, looks at the sergeant and says, "Hey, I don't think this thing is armed." Little Joe was apprehended with the help of animal control and the swat team.
