Library break-in suspect in South Dakota a real turkey

By: Barry Leibowitz
Topics: Daily Blotter

The suspect in Sunday's library break-in in Deadwood, S.D. looked a lot like this

/ Photo by Marc Serota/Getty Images

(CBS/AP) DEADWOOD, S.D. - Authorities investigating an apparent break-in at a public library were surprised to discover the culprit: a 20-plus-pound turkey.

Library director Jeanette Chaney-Moodie tells the Black Hills Pioneer newspaper that she headed into work Sunday morning after authorities called her about the incident.

Deadwood, S.D. Police Sgt. Ken Mertens says he didn't see any footprints near the broken window, so he surmised that a snow blower had tossed up a rock and shattered the glass.

Mertens says that a closer inspection revealed the wing-flapping culprit. And, he says, "that turkey wanted back out that hole."

Mertens and the library director's husband spent 20 minutes trying to corral the big bird before placing a blanket over its head and escorting it outside.

Then the turkey flew the coop - well, actually, it fled on foot.

"One thing we noticed is that he did not go down the aisle with the cookbooks in it," said library director Chaney-Moodie.

The suspect is apparently no bird-brain.

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