Locals panicked when Mao Xiping, a housewife from the village of Gezhai, in Henan province, central China, found the scraggy simian stealing cucumbers from her flat.
She thought it was a harmless rabbit, until she noticed it had an 'alien face' and her neighbours agreed it was like nothing they had ever seen before.
n alarmed Mrs Mao rang police for help. But officers thought she was monkeying around until she trapped the animal and took it to the police station.
Mrs Mao said: 'At first I thought it was a rabbit, then I was shocked to see it had an alien face.
'My neighbours agreed it was like nothing we'd seen before.
'It stopped eating cucumbers when we gave it peaches - now it won't eat anything else.'
