On June 7, a female peacock entered a wine and liquor store in L.A. She browsed the selection, made her presence known, and definitely did not follow the golden rule of “break it you buy it” after smashing $500 worth of alcohol.
The peacock, or, as female peacocks are called, the peahen, casually strolled into the Royal Oaks Liquor Store like she owned the place, according to the Associated Press. She minded her own for a bit, not bothering anyone and not even catching the eye of Rani Ghanem, the store manager. Then a customer pointed the bird out, Ghanem called 911, an animal-control officer came to the scene, and then it all went downhill from there.
“He was trying to get it with the fishing net, and (the bird) jumped on the first wine bottle,” Ghanem told the AP. “When that happened, I was like, ‘Aw this is about to be a big mess.’ He tried to get it again with the net … it just went straight diving into all the bottles. The more he kept on trying to use the net, the more it kept on flapping its wings and knocking everything over.”
Ninety minutes and $500 worth of bottles later, the peahen was released back onto the streets of L.A., unharmed with a hell of a story to tell her peahen friends. Flocks of peacocks aren’t uncommon in Arcadia, which is about 13 miles northeast of downtown L.A., because the city’s founder brought them from his ranch in India in the 1880s. Now the birds are a protected bird of the city — a protected bird that can sometimes be costly.
“Yeah, he’s got expensive taste,” Ghanem told the AP. “I’m like, ‘You break, you buy, dude.’ But clearly he didn’t. He got away with it.”
