BABOON BAG SNATCHER
Cheeky monkey rifles through cash – and make-up
STROLLING along a South African beach, Mark Bune and his fiancee Sian Elston-Lowe were hoping to spot dolphins and whales in the clear waters.
Instead, the British couple had a less pleasant encounter – with a marauding baboon.
The creature not only chased the couple, but even rifled through a terrified Miss Elston-Lowe’s bag.
The expats had been walking along Kogel Bay beach near Cape Town when Mr Bune, 58, spotted the baboon following them.
At first, he said, he was not ‘ too concerned’, until roughly half an hour later when the animal ran up to Miss ElstonLowe, 46, from behind. It grabbed her bag before rifling through its contents, sniffing and biting at everything it found.
In video footage showing the baboon rummaging through wads of money inside a purse, Mr Bune jokes: ‘ He’s getting through that cash faster than you do.’
‘There goes your make-up,’ he adds as the primate goes through Miss Elston-Lowe’s cosmetics bag.
Recounting the incident, Mr Bune said: ‘Towards the end of the hike our hairy stalker must have realised that he was running this was out his of moment. time and He options, looked bigger and more intimidating as he came closer and closer.
‘Sian had spotted him by now, her mood now one of concern as she began her retreat toward the made surf. his move, Without running warning around he behind me and making chase for Sian along the sand. ‘I only had a camera, she had a nice big bag that could have been full of banana sandwiches, it was an obvious choice. “Behind you”, I shouted. “Run!” But it was too late. Sian, screaming, threw the bag at him and ran for her life while I tried to capture the moment on film and at the same time be of some assistance. I tried to retrieve the bag but he ran away with it barking, showing me his teeth.’
Eventually the baboon abandoned the pair’s belongings after finding no food and wandered off.
It did not mark the couple’s first encounter with baboons.
Mr Bune said that while staying at a hotel in Sun City they had left their door open, causing a troop of seven or eight baboons to raid their belongings, ‘enjoying the contents of the mini bar, chewing on Toblerones and drinking brandy’.
Mr Bune and Miss ElstonLowe left West Sussex in 2007 after falling in love with Cape Town. They built their dream home in Somerset West, near Stellenbosch, on a mountain by a lake in the winelands.
Miss Elston-Lowe had worked for Lord March at the Goodwood Estate in Sussex, and is now executive PA to the chief executive of a media company.