Residents of Snellville, Georgia, have recently been the victims of a petty crime: someone has been going around and smashing the glass out of the wing mirrors of their cars. Someone... or something.
Two dozen people reported the same crime on their cars; enough so that police actually sent patrols out throughout the neighborhood, according to Channel 2 Action News. They were looking for kids with BB guns, but the actual culprit turned out to be way more... cute? Charismatic? Delightful? You decide.
The damage was caused by a pileated woodpecker, which, according to Audubon, is a beautiful species of woodpecker that is most easily identifiable by the scarlet crest on its head.
Channel 2 Action News reported that the woodpecker, aggressive in nature, mistook its reflection in the wing mirrors as a rival bird and attacked it. And because pileated woodpeckers are protected under the U.S. Migratory Bird Act, there isn’t much the residents can do about it. They’ve resorted to wrapping their mirrors on plastic bags to keep the bird away.
I don’t know how to feel about this one. On one hand, I view automotive vandalism as some of the worst crime. On the other, I love birds and the woodpecker doesn’t know any better. So I’d say find a good garage until the bird migrates. Maybe.
via Atlas Obscura