Summerland Keys, FL - A South Florida man was arrested after he stole his roommate's parrot and left the injured bird on a bus stop bench.
40-year-old Justin David Peters was arrested by Monroe County Sheriff's deputies after he stole his roommate's eclectus parrot named Piper.
Deputies began investigating Peters, of Summerland Key, after his 37-year-old female roommate called police to report her parrot had been stolen.
The victim told deputies she asked Peters to leave Piper alone and that Peters "did not have permission to take the bird out of its cage and leave the residence.”
Peters was spotted by witnesses at a bus stop nearby with the parrot.
Monroe County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Adam Linhardt says a witness "went about his business and looked at the bus station again sometime later and Peters was no longer there, but there was a red parrot on the bench. He took possession of the parrot, called the Sheriff’s Office and made other attempts to locate the owner.”
Other witnesses reported seeing Peters with the same red parrot that looked “stressed and agitated.”
After being returned to its owner, a veterinarian found that Piper “suffered multiple broken bones, a dislocated hip, blunt force trauma to one side of its body and other injuries."
Peters was arrested and booked into the Monroe County Jail.