Something wasn’t right when an employee
at a store selling live birds in Summerland
opened shop on Thursday morning. The employee
noticed the electricity to the store had been
turned off and a sliding glass entrance door
to a structure to the rear of the store was
open.
She took a look around and found four birds
were missing and called the police. While
waiting for a deputy to arrive, one of the
birds was found beneath the patio deck, apparently
unharmed.
Police found damage to the aluminum door
frame to the rear structure and unlocked Master
locks dangling from several bird cages. But
the cherished birds were missing and a reward
poster went up offering a “no questions
asked” reward of $5,000 for the safe
return of the cockatoo, purple parrot and
pacific parrotlet.
The next day, the store’s owner phoned
police to say she had consulted a pet psychic
and had a lead. The psychic told her she had
been burglarized and that she sensed the suspect
was an Asian male adult. Combined with a recollection
of an Asian man who had spent two hours in
the store the day before the burglary, the
woman knew who to look for. She said she recalled
the man “casing the joint” and
other employees had witnessed the man looking
at the electrical box.
A private investigator offered information
to police next. The man told authorities that
he had located one of birds, the white cockatoo,
in the backyard of an Asian man living on
West Valerio in Santa Barbara. The PI verified
the identity of the bird by videotaping the
bird and showing it to the storeowner.
Police confronted the Asian man who at first
denied having them, but then consented to
a search of his backyard. Police told him
he would not be arrested that night if he
would assist them in returning the birds to
their owner.
The birds were recovered and the man was
read his Miranda rights. The man denied actually
taking the birds, but stated it was greed
that motivated his idea to sell the birds.