Muscovite Robs Stepfather to Open Petting Zoo

Aug. 3, 2016

Russian police have detained an 18-year-old girl accused of stealing 3.5 million rubles ($52,500) from her stepfather's safe to open a petting zoo, the Interior Ministry announced in a statement Tuesday.

The girl was detained by police officers in south-west Moscow after her stepfather discovered his money had been replaced with "joke" banknotes.

Police allege that she used the money to buy a number of exotic animals, such as bats, snakes and iguanas.

She is also believed to have spent about 200,000 rubles ($3,000) on taxi rides, and 170,000 rubles ($2,500) on delivering food to parties she held for her friends in four rented apartments.

According to investigators, the girl memorized the code to her stepfather's safe and gradually replaced the banknotes with fakes. A criminal case has since been opened into the theft.

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