3 parakeets stolen from pet store by man, woman and child, New Jersey police say

Three parakeets were stolen from a specialty pet store in New Jersey by a man, woman and child, Totowa police said.

The theft occurred around 2 p.m. Saturday, when the trio entered Paterson Bird Store in Totowa with a dog and a cat, according to a Facebook post by the store. The three were told that the animals were not allowed near the birds, WABC reported.

Surveillance videos from the store show the child and the man standing near some of the bird cages.

In one video, the two look around for a moment before the man reaches into a black bird cage and gathers two birds with his hands. He appears to put the birds inside a duffel bag, one at a time.

In a second video, the man is seen reaching into a white bird cage and grabbing another bird. He also put the bird into the bag.

The theft happened quickly — one of the videos is a minute long, and the other about 47 seconds. The store said in a Facebook post that the three individuals were only in the store from about 2:09 p.m. to 2:14 p.m.

The birds taken are two rosy Bourke parakeets and one American Dilute Green Cheek Conure, a type of small parrot, WABC reported.

All three of the birds are very young, but the conure is especially fragile, as it was still being hand fed with special formula, the store said in a post.

Cheryl, a store employee who declined to give her last name, told McClatchy News that the conure may be dead by now, as he doesn’t know how to eat on his own and is only an infant. The other two parakeets are also very fragile, she said.

“It was just devastating in here, and we all feel a lot of guilt for it happening so quickly and none of us helping,” she said.

Store owner Philip Jasper told WABC that the incident was “the perfect storm,” as the employees were all busy helping other customers or performing other maintenance and weren’t in the room the birds were stolen from.

“I feel violated for sure,” Jasper said. “I feel very upset. I feel bad for my staff. I wasn’t here that day. They feel so bad about it, that they missed it.”

Altogether, the three birds are worth close to $2,000, WABC reported.

The Totowa Police Department is investigating the incident and shared photos on social media of the three individuals. The store has asked anyone who may have information on the incident to call them at 973-785-0096 or to email them at patersonbird@gmail.com.

This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 6:11 PM with the headline "3 parakeets stolen from pet store by man, woman and child, New Jersey police say."