A GIANT monkey sparked alarm outside a high school after approaching pupils and getting pictures taken with them.
Police were called to Lasswade High School in Midlothian to investigate what the cheeky monkey was up to.
But when they arrived at the school on Tuesday they discovered that there was no monkey business and instead it was all a marketing ploy for Ask Bongo, a mobile service which claims to provide the answer to any question via a £1.50 text message.
The monkey man was accompanied by two other helpers who were handing out wristbands with a mobile phone number to kids as young as 12.
Police have said that the employees were not acting illegally but added that it was “inappropriate” to target school pupils.
Meriel Munro, the mother of an S1 pupil at the school, said: “Three people, one dressed as a monkey, were calling out to the kids and asking them to get on their photo taken with the monkey on their mobile phones.
“The child was then given a rubber wristband with a number to text their name and town to, to receive some sort of personal message back, like a prediction or fortune cookie-type message.
“What the kids weren’t told was that the text would cost them £1.50. Surely adults hanging around schools offering any kind of ‘treats’ should be outlawed.
“I think this is disgraceful behaviour by people targeting impressionable children.”
A police spokesman said: “It was nothing more than a marketing ploy, but it was considered inappropriate that they were trying to target their product at school pupils.
“No further investigation is taking place.”
Ask Bongo could not be contacted despite asking via the text service why it was targeting school children.
An email address was given in the message as well as a comment saying “he’s a friendly monkey and likes to talk.”
They did not reply to the email.
