Southern California

Feathers, Wine Bottles Fly When Feisty Bird Rampages Through Liquor Store

Store workers captured the peafowl misadventure and its aftermath on video at Royal Oaks Liquors in Arcadia

A proud bird strutted into a Southern California liquor store Monday and refused to go quietly, leaving behind aisles of shattered bottles that were knocked from shelves in a spirited encounter with an animal control officer.

A customer noticed the large bird, likely a peafowl, perched on a shelf below a neon Pabst Blue Ribbon sign on the back wall of Royal Oaks Liquors in the 500 block of North First Avenue. The store's front door was left open and the bird walked in and settled down on the shelf, store manager Rani Ghanem said. 

"A lady said, 'Hey, uh, you have a bird inside your store,'" he said.

Ghanem can point customers to the Wild Turkey and Grey Goose, but this was a different animal, so he called the experts. An animal control officer responded and tried to do things the easy way by simply slipping a net over the bird, but things didn't go according to plan.

The bird inched away from the net, then spread its wings and swooped down from the shelf. The store manager captured video of the store standoff and the sound of bottles shattering as they were knocked to the floor. Some of the bottles were valued at $500, the store manager told CNS.

After considering his options, the animal control officer eventually caught the bird from behind as it sat on a top shelf. He told Ghanem the bird would be released at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden.

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