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Man chased after taking peacock from a Miami neighborhood

Posted at 10:34 AM, Mar 13, 2018
and last updated 2018-03-21 12:58:19-04

COCONUT GROVE, Fla.--Here he comes, slow roll in a pickup, parking in front of a house that is not his; a man on a mission to snatch a peacock.

And despite the elusiveness of several of the birds, the guy - with a cigarette dangling from his mouth - doesn't quit.

The time was Sunday morning at the Coconut Grove home of Virginia Jasper.  "He came to my property, he wondered to my porch, very disturbing."

After all the running into and out of the frame of Jasper's surveillance cameras, in what looks like a scene from "Road Runner" only with peacocks, he gets what he came for.

A bird tucked under his arm, he sprints into his truck, with an angry mob of peacocks on his tail.

"All the other peacocks, they ran behind him," Jasper said.

With 7-news cameras rolling, Jasper filed a complaint with Miami PD and showed off the footage in her neighborhood.

The peacocks are pretty and they can be a conversation piece. They are all over the Grove. But not everybody is thrilled about their presence.

"There are too many, they reproduce so fast," said one person. "They have become a nuisance," added another.

Neighbors say the birds also soil their front years, their roofs and cars and they want them out of here.

But they don't want them removed illegally.

"We do want to investigate it," said Miami Police Department Cmdr. Freddie Cruz.

 Miami cops feel the same way and would like to meet the suspected bird-snatcher.

"For a neighborhood to say they have actually seen blood and possible some animal flesh, I mean that bird could be hurt, could be in danger, so again, now we have animal cruelty," Cruz said.

Neighbors did not recognize the truck used to take the bird and don't believe the man who grabbed the peacock lives in the area.