I’m sure the police in Trenton, NJ, are considering a cockatoo cook-out at the moment.
“Help me! Help me!”
Police officers called to a South Trenton home Wednesday morning clearly heard what they thought was a female voice calling out for assistance.
Nobody answered the front door, and with seconds ticking away, and a dog barking inside the house, a sergeant ordered officers to kick in the door of the Centre Street home at about 9:50 a.m.
With their guns drawn, officers searched room-by-room and found no humans in distress, but they continued to hear the pleas for help.
In a first floor bedroom, they figured out the mystery: a caged bird, a cockatoo, that was repeatedly saying, “Help me! Help me!”
After police officers figured out there was no alarm, and that they and the 911 callers had been duped, the bird, whose name is Luna, eventually introduced herself with a simple “Hello.”
According to the report, it’s not the first time the cockatoo has imitated something worrying, causing neighbors to call the authorities to report something amiss.
I’ve been fooled by a cockatoo. While visiting a friend for a few days, I received a few calls on my cellphone. I was using a fairly distinctive ring tone at the time. Within half an hour, I heard my phone go off, and reached for it, only to find no caller. This happened two or three times before we realized that the cockatoo, in its cage behind the phone, was imitating its ring tone with uncanny accuracy!
Peter