Pet shop thief ‘nicked canaries from cage and stuffed them down his trousers’

A man allegedly stole four live canaries by shoving them into his trousers and walking out of a pet shop.

Neil Eatwell, the owner of Perfect Pets in Swindon, realised the birds were missing on April 10, and scoured CCTV footage to try and find what happened.

He says he found footage of a man wearing tracksuit bottoms reaching into their cage, grabbing the birds, and hiding them down his trousers.

Neil, 56, suspects the blonde woman with him acted as a lookout, as when staff approached she would ask for help to ‘look at other birds’.

He posted photos online of the pair he claims are responsible, warning the alleged thieves: ‘Don’t bother coming back as you will be ejected from the store and prosecuted.’

He told Metro he has had a big response from local people who saw his post and provided him with clues about who the images show.

He has reported the theft to police and is hoping they will be able to track down the culpit, particularly with the extra information he has now gathered.

‘I feel sorry for the poor birds. You don’t know the stress that they’ve gone through,’ he added.

The birds allegedly taken were two Roller canaries, a Fife canary and a red Phaeo canary, worth £175 in total.

He says the alleged heist was possible without drawing much attention because canaries are a ‘trusting little species’ and would not have protested or bitten the man.

Describing the day it happened, he said: ‘Our daughter [who was working there] did think they were acting suspiciously putting his hands near the cages, and was trying to keep an eye on them but didn’t see them take anything.

‘He got them out of the cage and into his clothing fairly quickly. Canaries are quite a slow bird, they’re not a difficult bird to catch as they’re quite a trusting little species.

‘It’s cruelty to the birds themselves because whether they’re going to survive being manhandled and shoved down someone’s trousers, who knows.

‘They were all parts of pairs and some of the females were actually sitting on eggs.

‘It’s not the first time. We’ve been broken into before and had birds stolen before but people break in at night to steal rather than shoplifting in broad daylight.’

Wiltshire Police have been contacted for comment.

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