What to Know
- A Long Island family is hoping to have their beloved pet returned to them after someone else walked out with it from a pet store
- Sonny the Quaker parrot was brought to a pet store for grooming and nail clipping, when someone walked off with the box he was inside
- It is unclear if the man who drove off in a white van took the family pet intentionally, but it has been two days since Sonny was taken
The bird may be the word, but for now one Long Island family is still waiting on word their bird is safe.
The family is hoping to have their beloved pet returned to them after someone else walked out with it from a pet store.
Sonny the Quaker parrot was brought to BTJ’s Jungle in West Islip Monday afternoon for grooming and nail clipping. As the Mount Sinai family waited for him to be returned, someone seemingly handing over the box containing Sonny to another man, who is then seen walking out of the store.
“We’re like, ‘Oh it’s taken a little bit.’ We come back here and … we didn’t see box here and it was gone,” said Sonny’s owner Faris Furoogh.
It is unclear if the man who drove off in a white van took the family pet intentionally. However, the owner of the store said if it was an accident, the man has had two days to return the bird and fix the situation.
“He ordered mice and he grabbed box with the bird and not the box with mice, walked out the store, and here it is a day and a half later,” said Tommy Niehoff. It wasn’t immediately clear what purpose the man ordered the mice for, but they are frequently used as feed for pet snakes.
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A bird in the hand may be worth two in the bush — but for this family, the bird is priceless.
“This bird, pretty much became a family member,” said Furoogh. “We would play with him, I would do my daily things [and] he would just be sitting on my shoulder.”
The family has filed a police report in Suffolk County, but they just want their bird back with no questions asked.
