Fowl Fugitive from Feasting Found

forgave a crime most fowl Monday after realizing the culprit was flying the coop to save a life.

It wasn’t necessarily the kind of wild turkey you’d expect at a store in the city, but one of the birds flew to the front door of the Chevron convenience store on Cobb Parkway at North Marietta Parkway and walked right in, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

A store employee gave the Thanksgiving fugitive shelter and its own feast of chips and water after the bird wandered the aisles but didn’t purchase anything, 11Alive reported.

A police officer working an accident on Cobb Parkway collared the trespasser, but “a thorough interrogation revealed the suspect was only trying to escape Thanksgiving, so it was granted asylum,” police spokesman Officer David Baldwin said in a news release.

Police said the big bird was released back into the wild, although the AJC said the turkey is finding a haven with under after people feast on its relatives Thursday.

Police withheld the turkey’s name “to protect the innocent.”

A distant, domesticated cousin of the Marietta bird is due to become the 23rd turkey to receive a presidential pardon today at the White House.