911 caller reports woman screaming "Help!" Deputies arrive to find noisy pet parrot
A UPS driver was delivering packages in Clackamas, Oregon, on Monday when he heard what sounded like a woman screaming inside a residence.
The driver, Lee Purdy, paused on the street to listen. Sure enough, once again, he heard, "Help! Help!" He didn't know what was going on.
He called his wife and explained the unusual situation. He told her he wasn't sure the voice sounded real. But she called 911 just to be safe.
"It was clearly weighing on him, so she thought she'd better call," Brian Jensen, public information officer for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office, told CBS News.
When deputy Hayden Sanders arrived at the scene, he didn't find a woman in distress. Instead, he found Diego -- the family's pet parrot.
"The deputies were able to contact the owner and gain entrance into the residence," Jensen explained. "And that's what they found."
Sanders was happy to report the green and yellow bird was uninjured and in no need of police assistance.
"We're thankful. It's super funny. We were ribbing [Sanders] a little bit," Jensen said. "We're just glad that no one, including the bird, actually needed any help."
Believe it or not, this isn't even the strangest encounter Clackamas County sheriff's deputies have had in the past seven days.
Last week, deputy Lon Steinhauer was on his usual patrol route when he spotted a female driver who appeared to be in distress parked along the side of the road.
He pulled over and discovered the woman staring at a large yellow spider crawling up her dashboard. Luckily, Steinhauer was able to catch the perp in time, using gloves to remove the insect from her vehicle.
"It's crazy to watch," Jensen said. "One of our deputies joked we're turning into Animal Planet."
Jensen said it's "rare" for the sheriff's office to receive animal-related calls. But they're not complaining.
"We're shaking our heads at it -- like, what in the world?" he said. "But we're super happy these are the calls we're getting. We'd much rather have these."
