Stone the crows! I climbed tree to retrieve wallet pinched by bird
AN author found himself out of pocket when a pickpocket crow snatched his wallet and dropped it on top of a tree.
The bird then pulled out Wyl Menmuir’s cards and banknotes and scattered them around before flying off.
Booker-nominated Wyl, 41, who was carrying out research for a new book about the sea, had put all his clothes in a bag to go snorkelling with a pal.
As they were about to go into the water at Flushing Beach opposite Falmouth Docks they noticed the crow pecking aroundWyl’s bag.
Wyl revealed his friend Will Slater, who works for Cornwall Wildlife Trust,
“asked if I had any sandwiches in the bag. I said, ‘No’ so he said, ‘Oh, you’ve got nothing to worry about.’ So I went snorkelling.”
The writer, from Porthtowan, continued the tale: “As I was getting out of the sea I saw the crow pull my trousers out of my bag.
“It then went into the pocket and got my wallet out.
“I had my fins on, there was no way I could get to it. The crow just looked at me with my wallet in its mouth and took it up to the top of a tree. It opened
my wallet – all the while it seemed to be watching me – and took all of the receipts, the cards and everything out.”
The 25ft tree was in a garden so Wyl knocked and got permission from the woman owner to climb it.
He revealed: “I got there and all of my cards were strewn everywhere. My library card, National Trust card and a £20 note were beyond rescuing.”
Wyl, whose first book The Many was longlisted for the Booker Prize, added: “The lady said, ‘Oh that’s so and so’s crow.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ and she said, ‘It’s a crow that follows her round the village.’”