Pets can be trained to be pretty amazing things. Apart from the usual “fetch!” or “roll over!” there have been enough animals in talent shows who were made to dance, perform tricks, and sometimes even sing.
But a husband-and-wife couple in Brazil who also happened to be drug dealers found a nefarious if creative, role for their parrot: a drug lookout. Brazilian police managed to seize a “lookout parrot” that alerted its owners while the cops were carrying out a raid on the house.
The little bird could be heard shouting “Mama, police!” as officers from the Military Police 17th Battalion closed in at a house in Teresina, Piaui, on Monday. This led police to conclude that the bird must have been specially trained as a “lookout.”
Major Mello of the Military Police 17th Battalion told Ultimo Segundo: “He must have been trained for that.
“He began to scream as soon as the police approached.”
The house belonged to a woman only known as India. She had already been arrested twice before for drug dealing.
Her husband, Edvan, 30, was also arrested during the raid as he was found to be in possession of four packages of crack cocaine.
The couple’s daughter, 16, was also found to have cannabis in her underwear. Although she was taken in, she was later released following an appearance in front of a judged.
The family’s feathered accomplice will be transferred from the Environmental Police Battalion to the Teresina Zoo.
According to the Guardian, the bird will spend three months learning how to fly before it will be released into the wild.
But it seems the couple had trained their parrot in other elements of criminal craft as it has refused to speak ever since being taken in by police.
A reporter who met the bird wrote: “So far it hasn’t made a sound … completely silent.”
Alexandre Clark, a local veterinarian, also confirmed that it was keeping mom, saying: “Lots of police officers have come by and he’s said nothing.”
But that may be because there was no lawyer present.