A peahen has ruffled more than just feathers at a Los Angeles-area liquor store.
Without a peep on Monday, the peahen strutted into the open door of the Royal Oaks Liquor Store in Arcadia.
Store manager and college senior Rani Ghanem said he did not even know it was there until a customer walked in and asked him about el pollo, Spanish for “the chicken.”
Photo: AP
Ghanem, a 21-year-old San Bernardino resident whose family owns the store, said he then tried to guide the sharp-clawed bird outside, but she spooked and at one point flew directly toward him and then up onto a top shelf of the store.
That spooked Ghanem.
An animal-control officer responded after Ghanem called 911, approaching the peahen with gloves and a fishing net.
That is when the hilarity ensued, Ghanem said.
“He was trying to get it with the fishing net and [the bird] jumped on the first wine bottle. When that happened, I was like, ‘Aw, this is about to be a big mess,’” Ghanem said. “He tried to get it again with the net... It just went straight diving into all the bottles. The more he kept on trying to use the net, the more it kept on flapping its wings and knocking everything over.”
At one point, video taken by Ghanem on his cellphone shows the officer catching a wine bottle in the net as the bird crashes through a shelf and a dozen bottles shatter to the ground.
Unable to watch more destruction, Ghanem put on a sweatshirt to protect himself from the bird’s claws and helped the officer ensnare it.
He said they took the bird outside and that it was unharmed.
Ghanem said the peahen was in the store for 90 minutes and broke US$500 worth of the store’s best bottles of liquor.
“Yeah, she’s got expensive taste,” Ghanem said. “I’m like: ‘You break, you buy, dude,’ but clearly she didn’t. She got away with it.”
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