Simple monit script for mongodb

mongodb

check host mongodb with address localhost
    start program = "/usr/bin/sudo /opt/database/mongo/bin/mongod"
    stop program = "/usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/pkill -f mongod"
    if failed port 28017 protocol HTTP
        request /
        with timeout 10 seconds
        then start

I cannot get the most basic script working on this on ubuntu 16.04 monit 5.16

check process mongod with pidfile /var/run/mongod.pid
  group database
  start program = "/usr/sbin/service mongod start"
  stop program = "/usr/sbin/service mongod stop"
  if failed host 127.0.0.1 port 27017 protocol http
    and request "/" with timeout 15 seconds then restart

I get the error: Error reading pid from file '/var/run/mongod.pid'

but when I run cat /var/run/mongod.pid I do get the value 51455

I've changed permissions making it both less and more restrictive to no avail. Thoughts?