The Great Ape Robbery

It’s part of my mission statement to bring you all the big news about classic crime fiction. This doesn’t really qualify as big, but here goes.

You might remember my intrepid travel journalism last month, which came complete with a face-to-face encounter with one of nature’s most secretive and astonishing creatures, the plastic gorilla dressed as Hercule Poirot on Torquay’s high street.

What I didn’t know was that just a few miles up the road at Babbacombe Model Village, there was a corresponding model ceramic gorilla, also dressed as Belgium’s finest.

Not any more. Some little monkey has half-inched it. The gorilla was missed earlier this week.

‘There’s some irony in the fact it was Poirot who was stolen,’ General Manager Simon Wills told This is South Devon. ‘We need Agatha Christie to come and solve the crime.’