Five charged with trying to steal carcass of freed Ohio lion

(CBS/AP) TOLEDO, Ohio - Police have charged five people with trying to steal the carcass of a lion that was among dozens of exotic animals released from a private Ohio zoo by their suicidal owner and then shot dead by sheriff's deputies last month.

Deputies said they noticed the headlights of a vehicle near the Zanesville compound and decided to stop it, according to reports released by the Muskingum County Sheriff's Office. Inside the Jeep, they found a dead male lion that had been loaded into the truck by four men and a teenage boy, the deputies said.

Deputies removed the carcass, belonging to one of nine lions that had been housed at the compound. Prosecutors wouldn't say what they believed the men and the boy planned to do with the lion's body.

The four men and the teen, ranging in ages from 21 to 17, were each charged with a misdemeanor count of theft, Muskingum County prosecutor Michael Haddox told The Associated Press. Each faces up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Deputies were forced to kill 48 wild animals including bears, lions and endangered Bengal tigers after their owner, Terry Thompson, 62, threw open their cages on Oct. 18 and then killed himself on his farm.

Deputies have said they had no choice but to shoot the lions and other animals after they charged at them and were dangerously close to neighboring homes and an interstate highway.

Nearly all the cages had been unlocked, and holes were cut in the metal fencing.

Just days before Thompson set the animals free, he told a deputy that he was having a tough time taking care of them after spending a year in prison on a gun conviction. He also was deep in debt to the Internal Revenue Service.