Bird thieves return chatty cockatoo

It only took three days for Liam, a four-year-old rose-breasted cockatoo, to wear out the thieves who stole him from a Stockholm-area pet shop.

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Thieves first broke into the store during the evening of Friday, May 2nd and made off with the exotic bird, reports the newspaper Expressen.

When store manager Peter Lindberg arrived for work the next morning, he found shards of glass and pink feathers on the floor—as well as an empty cage.

Lindberg was shocked and heartbroken when he realized the bird—named after actor Liam Neeson—had been stolen.

“Nothing else was missing. Only Liam. It was terrible. I’ve taken care of Liam since he was a baby and couldn’t stop thinking about him,” said Linberg to Expressen.

But before Lindberg could report the first break in to authorities, he arrived at work three days later to discover his shop had been burgled once again.

“My first thought was ‘damn it, not again’,” he said.

This time, however, instead of discovering another missing bird, Lindberg found that his missing bird had been returned.

“He was sitting there quietly in his cage looking at me. My jaw just dropped and I could hardly believe it was true,” Lindberg told Expressen.

While sweeping up the broken glass has been easier for Lindberg the second time around with Liam keeping him company, several questions about the case continue to vex him.

“We are obviously overjoyed, but I wonder where he’s been. And why they brought him back. They risked quite a lot when they broke in a second time,” he said.

The store managers suspects, however, that the little bird’s strong personality may have something to do with why the bird-nappers decided to put Liam back where they found him.

“He can be quite the little devil, biting and screeching if he gets scared or doesn’t like someone. It gets tiresome pretty fast,” said Lindberg.

It took a couple of days, and a few servings of his favourite treat of soft ice cream, before Liam returned to his normal, talkative self.

But so far the bird has yet to divulge any clues about his captors.

“Unfortunately, Liam refuses to say anything about who the thieves are,” said Lindberg.