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Owl suspected perpetrator in two Greater Victoria break-ins

Barred owl makes itself at home in Oak Bay homes
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Tina Gaboury deals with more than she bargained for after a barred owl trashes her neighbour’s Oak Bay home. (Courtesy Tina Gaboury)

An Oak Bay break-and-enter expert appears to be happy and healthy after residents spotted it in a tree having dinner not far from the scene of its latest crime.

A resident returned to a polished clean home after asking a neighbour to keep an eye on the place. Neighbour Tina Gaboury got a little more than she bargained for after she and her boyfriend checked in on the weekend and assumed there’d been a break-in.

“Everything was in disarray, pictures off the wall, vases knocked over lamps knocked over,” she told the Oak Bay News.

Then she spotted the intruder.

A barred owl peering at her, one eye winking, explained the excrement all over the place.

The calm creature didn’t bat an eye at the pair of humans, though they wondered at first if it was missing an eye. They later determined it was just a blinker. Gaboury called her brother-in-law, a wildlife enthusiast who knew just what to do.

READ ALSO: Barred owls dominate Greater Victoria owl-scape

With all the windows and doors open to the wild, the owl still didn’t make a move to exit. So the brother-in-law donned a pair of gloves and with a towel gently tucked over its head, the feathered guest was gestured gently to the back deck.

There it still sat, allowing a few pets Gaboury said, eventually flying off.

A couple of days previous, in the early hours of Nov. 10, Oak Bay police officers found a similar, if not the same, perpetrator perched on a couch in a Beach Drive home. The department said officers were called for an intruder around 4 a.m. and found the feathered offender. After some coaching, the critter casually walked out through open patio doors and flew off. Police report no injuries – human or animal.

With concern the owl was hungry or unwell, Gaboury happily reports her neighbour spotted it dining on a rodent Sunday evening.

christine.vanreeuwyk@blackpress.ca


 

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Christine van Reeuwyk

About the Author: Christine van Reeuwyk

I'm dedicated to serving the community of Oak Bay as a senior journalist with the Greater Victoria news team.
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