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East Lansing resident aims to bring joy to the town with his monkey-decorated van

September 14, 2015

The monkey machine, affectionately referred to by 50-year-old resident of East Lansing and owner of the vehicle Mike Reeve, has become a common site for MSU students and East Lansing residents alike. Reeve's maroon Chrysler Town and Country has been covered with anywhere between 43 and 58 stuffed monkeys since around Thanksgiving of 2014. 

“I figured (it would) make a few people around me laugh and by now it’s gotten so much more and bigger than I even thought it would," said Reeve, a maintenance man for Metzger Realty Co. located in downtown East Lansing.

Reeve said it wasn’t his plan to drive a car full of monkeys around, but he decided his car looked angry and that he didn’t want to drive an angry vehicle. 

The stuffed monkeys are held onto his car with about $150-180 worth of high powered magnets that Reeve ordered online. Reeve estimated the worth of stuffed monkeys on his car to be about $38. 

“How often can you go back and become a child, that’s hard to do, and yet I see it again and again with this and it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced," Reeve said. 

Although, its not always as fun as monkeys in a barrel for Reeve, who said the car comes with some excessive maintenance responsibilities. Reeve has to “bring their (the monkeys) fur back to full puffiness and make them look cute again" after it rains. 

He has also faced issues of vandalism since students have returned to campus after the summer, so much so that he has started taking one monkey off a day. 

Reeve said he is frustrated by the vandals and doesn't understand the need for people to deliberately damage someone's property. 

The project is purposed to make the lives of others better, Reeve said. 

“I just like to make people smile. I’m a fixer and if I can fix people by making them smile that’s a good thing," Reeve said. 

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