Cheeky monkey steals stunned Brit’s phone in Bali and takes hilarious selfie

The baffled 19-year-old tourist revealed the monkey had taken a ‘whole video and taken selfies’, adding ‘bhe’s got his nipples in as well’

A British tourist holidaying in Bali has told of the incredible moment a cheeky monkey swiped his mobile phone out of his hand and took off with it to stage a photoshoot of multiple selfies and a video.

Oliver Lloyd, 19, from Shropshire, was on holiday in Bali, Indonesia when he fell victim to a light-fingered thief. He and his girlfriend were visiting the incredible Uluwatu Temple, a dramatic traditional Indonesian temple carved out of the cliffside in Pecatu in South Kuta. The visually stunning religious site is famous for its large population of long-tailed macaques who get up close and personal with tourists. Sometimes, a little too personal.

The teenager from Telford said he was taking some holiday happy snaps to send to mates when he became the target of a cheeky little crim. “I was taking some photos of the monkeys to send to my mates. I put my phone down towards my pocket for a second and heard my girlfriend shouting my name. They snatched my phone straight out of my hand.”

The primate then vanished off into the surrounding forest teetering on the edge of the Uluwatu cliffs, leaving Oliver and his girlfriend with the impossible task of hunting down the right monkey amongst hundreds of macaques with the help of temple guards.

“It disappeared into the forest and there were monkeys everywhere,” the 19-year-old said, adding that they were eventually able to track down the nimble little thief via the Life360 tracking app the couple had on Oliver’s girlfriend’s phone. Once they had located the device, a temple guard then ventured into the scrub to track down the cheeky culprit amongst a cohort of boisterous monkeys in amongst the unsteady rocks and dangerous sections of terrain.

The guard, thankfully, was able to safely retrieve the device. Once the caper of the vanishing phone was over, Oliver said his girlfriend had joked about what the monkey may have got up to while on the lam. “‘Imagine if the monkeys have taken selfies on your phone’,” he recounted her saying. Her comment was the push he needed to check – and what he found was comedy gold. The mischievous monkey had not only managed to take a string of selfies and a lengthy video. He added: ‘I looked on the camera, and it had recorded a whole video and taken selfies. It was amazing,” he said, adding there were even some raunchier ones in the mix, adding: “He’s got his nipples in as well.”

Monkeys in Bali are well known for their cheeky interactions with tourists and are considered highly intelligent little thieves. They’re considered temple guardians by locals — especially at the cliffside sites like the Uluwatu Temple. Their presence is thought to scare away bad spirits. The monkeys in Uluwatu are particularly bold, and have learned that stealing items like sunglasses, phones, and jewellery are a sure-fire way to trade the stolen items for food. Tourists are advised not to touch the monkeys or let them climb on their person. Rabies is present in Indonesia, and while it is largely driven by street dogs, the island’s long-tailed macaques are also potential carriers of the dangerous disease. They can transmit other d dangerous viruses, such as Monkey B Virus, and their claws can transmit rabies if they have saliva on them Tourists are warned to seek emergency medical attention if a monkey scratches, bites, or breaks the skin in any way.