Wild Turkeys Abound In Pennsauken
PENNSAUKEN, N.J., (CBS) -- There's some unusual "traffic" on the streets of Pennsauken.
It turns out the state of New Jersey's desire to bring back the wild turkey has worked very well.
It's a nature lesson Pennsauken is dealing with on a daily basis.
Police patrolled in one direction, we drove the opposite way. We weren't in town five minutes before we saw the first one, a man walking his dog, sure, but we also saw what we came for -- a devil may care, in your yard, in your face -- wild turkey.
"Turkeys, terrible," a neighbor said.
Turkeys, terrible. Not terrific. Unless you want a wildlife lesson now that it's breeding season.
"In the middle of the street out here they were mating, which my wife said, 'don't they have any shame?'," neighbor Walt Fazler said.
Get a room! But actually this is their room, the great outdoors and no measly white picket fence can keep them out. Turkeys stroll, congregate in groups and yes, exhibit that shocking behavior in the middle of the street, only to fly into trees, end up on cell phone video, and then on TV -- with the law right on their tail.
"Reports of criminal mischief when they damage their cars when they peck at it and mostly just being a nuisance," Sergeant Len Rebilas of Pennsauken Police Department said.
So following a U.S. mail truck from stop to stop is only a nuisance? Stalking might be more like it, according to the mailman who speaks their lingo.
"When I go 'stop', they gobble gobble, and then when I ride to the next box, they run and do a turkey trot," mail carrier John Finnegan said.
Not so fast skinny legs! We hear your presence has forced men in the area to arm themselves with clubs, kids to hover in groups, and dads to practice this hockey move on the way to the offspring's bus stop.
"But once you wield this, they run the other way," neighbor Walt Hatley aid.
Back through somebody else's yard. Do turkeys make people chicken? Are geese glad the heat's off them for a bit?
Nature makes a comeback -- like it or not.
