In January, St. Louis briefly became a city where monkeys were loose in the streets. Or were they.

The St. Louis City Health Department first received reports of four monkeys on the loose near O’Fallon Park in north St. Louis on January 8. They were spotted on Redbud Avenue. Animal control officers searched Thursday and Friday but did not find them. The zoo helped identify the species: vervet monkeys, native to sub-Saharan Africa, known for their grayish-green fur and black faces. Intelligent. Unpredictable. Somewhere in north city.

Complicating the investigation was the public’s use of AI-generated images. The story had caught the attention of people across the country and beyond. “Many unverified or AI-generated posts have contributed to confusion about whether animals are still loose,” said the Environmental Health Bureau Chief. The St. Louis Public Library posted AI images of the monkeys taking selfies with a goat that had also gotten loose around the same time. Nobody asked why there was also a goat. The goat simply was.

Police later pushed back on a key detail — that an officer had confirmed a sighting. It turned out the report came from a 911 call from a mail carrier who said her coworker claimed to have seen a monkey. Police tried to contact the alleged witness and never heard back.

The city eventually called off the search. The official conclusion: the monkeys were probably now being harbored by whoever had them illegally in the first place. “It’s less monkeys on the loose,” said the health department, “and it’s more an issue of prohibited animals in the city now.”

Somewhere in north St. Louis, if you believe the official story, there are vervet monkeys living quietly in someone’s home. If you don’t believe the official story, there are vervet monkeys living quietly in the city’s infrastructure, smart enough to stay out of sight, occasionally glimpsed by a mail carrier who won’t return calls.

Both of these possibilities feel very St. Louis.