Coco the cockatoo has definitely provided valuable support. This exotic bird helped police officers in the Deux-Sèvres region of France to find its owner, who was accused of receiving stolen goods and animal trafficking.
Discover our latest podcast
“Coco!”
The business goes back to the very start of 2018, when police officers carried out a raid in the accused’s home. Unfortunately, they found a number of dead birds such as canaries and even a chaffinch, which is a protected species. Amongst the birds, a cockatoo, semi-domesticated without an identification tag was saved.
That animal was called Coco. Like most cockatoos, it is capable of reproducing the sounds it hears. However, it only has two words in its vocabulary: “Coco”, and “Peanut”. The animal, which was very chatty, kept repeating these two words.
The bird would however allow the investigators to find the breeding ground from which it had been stolen. One farmer recognised the animal because of the distinct way in which it pronounced “Coco” and “Peanut”. The man had had around forty birds stolen during a burglary in July 2017, which meant around £3,500 worth of damage.
Jail time
It wasn’t the guilty party’s first offence, and he was sentenced to six months in prison for “receiving stolen goods coming from recurring theft”. He also had to pay £500 to the manager of another establishment that he had vandalised, as well as the rearing of the birds.
In any case, we hope that Coco has joined the police for its services!
