A Timperley pet shop owner today admitted he was “elated” after being reunited with his beloved parrot Baby, three weeks after it was audaciously stolen in the middle of the night.
Graham Ralston, of Timperley Aquatics on Stockport Road, said he never gave up hope of seeing the Green-winged macaw again despite there being no sighting of the £2,000 bird since it was taken by a bike-riding man in the early hours of August 4th.
Police today charged a 47-year-old man in connection with the burglary, and he’s due to appear at Minshull Street Crown Court on September 11th.
Greater Manchester Police would not reveal where they had found Baby, but said that officers from Trafford South Neighbourhood Policing Team had located it after a tip-off.
Ralston, who hand-reared eight-year-old Baby from six weeks to six months and has looked after it for the last two years after it was returned by a customer, said he received a call from the police at 1.15pm this afternoon.
He told Altrincham Today: “The police phoned to say they’d been to a property and believed they’d found Baby. They asked if I would go to the police station at 2.15 to identify her and hopefully pick her up, which I duly did.
Watch Graham reunited with Baby:
Baby the parrot is back home at @timperleyzoo! Full, extraordinary story to follow #Altrincham pic.twitter.com/w2V9064ZTA
— Altrincham Today (@altrinchamtoday) August 25, 2015
“There was great excitement at the police station – I’ve got to thank the police at Altrincham, they’ve been brilliant all the way through. There were about 20 coppers all crammed into one room as I took the parrot out of the cage and she was delighted to see me, and I was delighted to see her!”
Ralston said he had never given up hope.
“Not at all,” he said. “You’ve got to keep positive, but there’d been no sightings of her whatsoever in two weeks, and she has a metre wing span, so we knew she hadn’t been let go if somebody had her.
“The offender has said absolutely nothing, and it’s only on a tip-off that the police have got the information and acted upon it.”
He added: “I’m elated. We’ve only had her back 10 minutes and the shop’s full of customers. With the power of Facebook it’s gone round the world already I think. It’s brilliant.
“I love her and she loves me, it’s just great to have her back. Absolutely there was recognition from her to me – she was all over me straight away.”
