Giant Gorilla Stolen From Lawton, Oklahoma Found

We got the call this morning we've been waiting for from Traffic On Demand owner, Tommy Brooks. "The gorilla's back!" Luckily, the missing 25-foot inflatable godzilla gorilla that was set up outside of the Lawton Crysler dealership made its way back to his business and a few people have a few extra hundred dollars in their pockets today, April 28.

Brooks explained that the gorilla went missing originally because of a group of folks in Lawton who were hard up for money. They knew that the giant gorilla could resell for a pretty penny, so they snatched the inflatable while it was deflated in the early morning hours on Wednesday, April 23. You catch the original story here.

News reached "everywhere," according to Brooks, and it saved the gorilla.

According to a Lawton local, the group tried to resell the gorilla in Wichita Falls, Texas for $2,500. However, the potential buyers had seen our previous article and backed out of the deal last minute. The perps knew it was going to be a hard sell with so many eyes looking for the inflatable, so they almost decided to torch the inflatable.

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That's when word of mouth saved the gorilla. The Lawton local who heard about the deal reached out to the group, asking them to do the right thing and return it. They ended up working out a deal to drop the inflatable off after the massive flooding on Saturday, April 26 for the $500 cash prize.

Despite having his gorilla stolen, Brooks still believes in the people of Lawton.

Brooks said all while he was waiting to see what would happen, he still had high hopes that the incident may have been a harmless prank. "I was really hoping that it was a senior prank and that we could be part of it, but that's definitely not the case," he told us.

This was a first time for Brooks in many ways; first time for having anything stolen and having to pay a ransom for a giant stolen inflatable gorilla.

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Even still, Brooks sees the good in the folks of Lawton and continues to work and live here without any resentment towards the situation. Now, he and Gary the Gorilla can leave happily ever after.

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Funny, Crazy & Unusual Street Names Found in Oklahoma

One thing's for sure, Oklahoma has a ton of funny, unusual, and downright crazy street names. Across the Sooner State in every town, city, and rural community you'll find hilarious streets and roads with some of the most bizarre names you can think of. When they were named, more than likely years ago, I'm sure no one thought they would be considered crazy or funny at the time. Well, times have changed! Now some of these street names had to be deliberately named by someone with a great sense of humor. At least in my opinion anyway. Scroll through the photo gallery to check out some of Oklahoma's funniest and craziest street names. If you know of a funny or crazy street or road name in Oklahoma take a quick photo of the sign and submit it to critter@townsquaremedia.com and we'll include it in the photo gallery below.

Gallery Credit: Don "Critter" Brown