CINCINNATI (WXIX) – Cincinnati police searched early Monday for a tiger after receiving reports from two people that one was possibly sighted near the Cincinnati Zoo and University of Cincinnati.
The first sighting was reported by people in a car on Martin Luther King Drive around 2:45 a.m., according to emergency communication reports.
About five minutes later, a frightened-sounding female reported a sighting outside Crosley Tower on UC’s campus off Martin Luther King Drive and Clifton Court.
She said she was calling from the Rieveschl Hall on College Drive. That building connects to Crosley Tower.
No tiger was ever located and no additional reports came in since, said Lt. Jonathan Cunningham, a police spokesman.
“We did receive a call for a possible sighting of something that resembled a tiger. So our officers did check the area with nothing found,” he said.
Both of the Cincinnati Zoo’s tigers, Zero and Jin, are accounted for, according to police and zoo officials.
“Our tigers are safe and sound at the zoo,” said Michelle Curley, the zoo’s communication director.
Officers also checked Burnet Woods off Burnet Woods Drive and Brookline Avenue.
During the search, police were ordered to stay in their cruisers.
Drones were put up to help the search, police confirm.
The search appears to have ended or dramatically reduced around 4:45 a.m.
It is illegal to own a tiger or any other dangerous wild animal in Ohio.
That law was passed in 2012 after several animals escaped from a private property in Zanesville.
The only exceptions are for those owned before the law took effect and permitted by the state.
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