Stool Pigeon Cockatiel Blows Whistle on Burglar

Frankie LaDel was sitting pretty until Coco the cockatiel blew the whistle on him, authorities said.

LaDel, 20, was arrested Tuesday on charges of breaking into a home in this Florida Panhandle city and taking Coco, $100 in change and $4,715 worth of camera gear, electronics equipment, jewelry, shoes and food, police said.

After the break-in, LaDel left Coco with the owner of Tats Are Us Tattoo Emporium, asking him to keep the bird, which he said he intended as a gift, until Christmas, according to a police report.

But Coco couldn’t keep his beak shut when Police Officer Jim Walker stopped by the parlor Tuesday night.

“All of a sudden the bird started singing, and I remembered the burglary,” Walker said. “He’d just been squawking and making bird screams and then he started whistling.”

It was the theme song from television’s “The Andy Griffith Show.” Walker recalled that Philip Blankenship, Coco’s owner, had told an investigator that his bird could whistle the tune from the comedy show about a small-town sheriff.

The tattoo parlor owner told police that the bird had been brought in by LaDel. A customer told police that LaDel could be found at a nearby department store.

LaDel was arrested in a parking lot, where he was having car trouble, and confessed to Monday’s burglary as well as an earlier break-in at the same house, Walker said.