Making Off With Feathered Loot : Robbers Take Wing With 4 Birds in Hand

Polly, it seems, is worth a lot of crackers.

When two men walked into a Buena Park pet store this week expressing an interest in conures, a small member of the parrot family, store clerks soon found out that the men were after more than birdseed.

As employees Gabriel Sanchez, 19, and Jaime Huerta, 18, answered questions about the exotic birds, the men brandished guns and ordered them to take the four tame conures out of two glass cages and put them in a box. They then fled with the four birds, valued at $1,188, a $100 bird cage and about $300 from the store’s register, police said. They were last seen driving south on Beach Boulevard in a four-door, maroon Ford.

The robbery has left employees and detectives aflutter.

“You’d expect this to happen in a liquor store,” said Sanchez, who felt a gun pressed against his back during the robbery Monday at Pet Inc., 5300 Beach Blvd. “But a pet store?”

Police on Friday said they hope the birds’ squawking would catch someone’s attention and lead police to them. They even hope that the birds, able to mimmick human voices, would reveal clues about their captors.

So far, however, police have no leads, said Buena Park police spokesman Richard McMillen.

The missing birds, all native to South America but bred domestically, include a bright orange sun conure valued at $475, a green and gray dusky conure valued at $275, a green and peach peach-front conure fetching $249 and a green and black Nanday conure valued at $189, store employees said.

Police speculate that the exotic birds, which weigh about seven ounces each and measure a foot long, will be sold or kept as pets, McMillen said. They can live to be 50 years old on a diet of seeds, fruits and vegetables.

“Maybe it’s a trendy thing to have,” he said.

The store, which opened in June, had the birds for just two weeks before the robbery, said clerk Karen Werner.

“We’re just hoping whoever has them will take care of them,” she said. “I’ve heard horror stories.”

Sanchez said the robbers didn’t just wing it.

They visited the store earlier, he said, and told the clerks they wanted a Nanday conure as a gift for a wife. The men said they would return to buy the bird.

Instead, they came back to rob the store.

“I felt something on my back, and he said, ‘OK guys, put all the birds in a box real slowly,’ ” Sanchez said. As one robber held the pair at gunpoint and forced the clerks to put money in paper bags, the other ran out to get a car ready, Sanchez said.

He said the robbers appeared concerned for their feathered loot.

“They seemed to be really interested in them,” Sanchez said, holding one of three birds the store replaced. “Even while they were holding us up, they asked what the birds eat. They wanted to make sure there was enough birdseed in the cage.”

The robbers were 5 feet 8 to 5 feet 9, average weights, 25 to 35 years old with dark brown hair.

The species stolen from the pet store is one of the easiest to acquire and least expensive parrots available, said Larry Farrington, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service special agent.

“The robbery would have made more sense if it would have been a more exotic bird,” Farrington said. “For a commercial species like that, it sounds odd to me that they’re going through the trouble.”

MISSING PARROTS

Sun Conure. Value: $475. Color: bright orange.

Dusky Conure. Value: $275. Color: green and gray.

Peachfront Conure. Value: $249. Color: green and peach.

Nanday Conure. Value: $189. Color: green and black.

Homeland: Species native to South America but can be bred domestically.

Size: about 12 inches.

Weight: 5 to 7 ounces.

Food: Seeds, fruits, fresh vegetables.

Once tamed, these small parrots enjoy the company of people. They also like each other. Conures tend to squawk a lot, so Buena Park detectives are hoping neighbors will be able to report the birds. These parrots can also mimick voices, so they might be able to pick up expressions from their captors.

Source: Pet Inc., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.