LAWRENCEVILLE, GA (CBS ATLANTA) -
Since school is out for the summer, some teenagers decided to take a late night dip in their neighborhood pool on Wednesday.
Between their laughter, they were listening for a monkey that escaped from Emory's Yerkes Primate Research Center.
They live in the Westchester Commons subdivision in Gwinnett County.
Yerkes and its monkeys are their next door neighbors.
Randy Muller told reporter Tony McNary that he and about 20 of his neighbors have serious security concerns about the facility.
"My biggest fear is the children in the neighborhood. There's an immediate concern that the monkey could bite somebody. I don't believe the whole story about this monkey not having a virus or anything else," said Muller.
A spokeswoman for Yerkes said the rhesus monkey, which was discovered missing on June 15, is not infected.
Muller said this isn't the first time a monkey escaped the facility.
"Several people in the neighborhood reported stories of seeing monkeys in their back yards and on the roofs of their houses. It's something of great concern at this point," said Muller.
Muller and his neighbors sent Gwinnett County commissioner a complaint about the facility.
They want it out of their community.
"I recognize that Yerkes probably located here during a time when this was a desolate area. But over the years this has become a very concentrated area," said Muller.
"You have at least four playgrounds in the area and literally thousands of residents. I think it's time for them [Yerkes] to relocate the facility someplace else," Muller said.
A spokeswoman for Yerkes told CBS Atlanta that the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Georgia's Department of Natural Resources are both investigating the facility.
No word on the missing monkey.
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