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Delavan baby lynx theft may have been an inside job

Posted at 5:19 PM, Jul 07, 2017
and last updated 2017-07-08 08:57:34-04

DELAVAN, Wis. (AP) -- Prosecutors say a man suspected in the theft of two Siberian lynx cubs from a petting zoo in southeastern Wisconsin said he was quitting his zoo job and had tried to give the cubs to someone else.

Loren Wiseman, a 58-year-old Delavan man, was arrested Thursday faces charges of being party to theft of the animals. 

Assistant Walworth County District Attorney Matthew Leusink told The Janesville Gazette Wiseman recently told Animal Gardens he was quitting his job and moving back to West Virginia.

Leusink said a woman returned the 7-week-old cats to Animal Gardens on Wednesday after seeing in the news they had been stolen. The woman said the suspect had offered her the cats if she wanted them.

The suspect was released on a $10,000 signature bond Friday.