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.