BY BOB HOLT

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Jackson police say they have been receiving calls the last two days from people who have spotted a strange visitor in their neighborhood. A baboon.

The New York Daily News reports the baboon was first spotted near Interstate I-95 by a driver, while later a woman reported the baboon was sitting on her back porch.

NBC Philadelphia reports Sam and Stacey Murphy saw the baboon in the backyard of their Jackson home. They claim to have also seen the animal walking on the side of their house.

Another person said the baboon ran up to him while he was mowing his lawn and grabbed his lawn mower handle. Later the baboon was seen on a golf course in Jackson, but it ran before being caught by officials.

According to the Courier Post, the sightings were close to Monkey Jungle at Six Flags Great Adventure, so park officials were called. The fences around the Monkey Jungle were checked and were not disturbed, and the park has added more hot wire to fence areas.

Six Flags has 150 baboons, and each is vaccinated and micro-chipped, but they are not inventoried.

And of course, the baboon has taken the time to set up its own Twitter page. The baboon tweeted, “@JerseyBaboon and @BaboonOnTheRun are just decoys so I can reach Hoboken by nightfall."

Baboons are not normally aggressive but police say anyone who sees it should not attempt to approach the animal. Persons who have any information are asked to call police at 732-928-1111.