Bird-brained thieves make off with fancier’s homing pigeons
WHEN George Howie’s prized birds were stolen, he was devastated.
But the pensioner can take some comfort – because they are homing pigeons and will head straight back to his loft if they are released.
Mr Howie discovered 22 of his birds were missing when he went out to his garden to check on them at 6am yesterday.
The prize-winners had returned to Aberdeen after their first race of the season only hours before they vanished.
Mr Howie, who is in his 70s, fears a fellow enthusiast took the pigeons because the thief appeared to know the most valuable birds.
He said: ‘I got up at 6am and saw that the end flap was open. I had three young birds in the end section. They [the raiders] put them together in the same nest and took the parents. They took stock birds and ten or 11 racing birds. I’ve had some of them for about 13 years.
‘They seem to have taken all the good ones. It must have been somebody who knows about birds. I’ve never really put a price on them. To me they’re priceless.’ Among the birds stolen were white grizzles and white pieds. .
The retired safety officer, who has kept pigeons since he was a schoolboy, has won dozens of races and competitions. The Sunnybank Racing Pigeon Club member, who had his first competition win in 1965, said training the birds took up a lot of his time.
He added: ‘If they release them I’ll be quite happy. The birds are my life, it keeps me going. It keeps me young.’
All the birds have rings on their legs and can be easily identified because they are registered to the owner.
A spokesman for the Scottish Homing Union, governing body for pigeon racing, said: ‘I don’t know what value the birds would be to anybody because they would have to be kept in. As soon as you let them go, they’ll go straight home.’
Police yesterday confirmed they were investigating the theft.