Shoppers at an antique store in upstate New York made an unusual discovery earlier this month: a live owl resting peacefully on a shelf among the merchandise. The incident occurred on 21 February in the hamlet of East Durham, about 204 kilometres north of Manhattan, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) confirmed on Friday.
Customers at The Market Place reportedly spotted 'something extremely lifelike' on one of the shelves and alerted store staff. Environmental conservation police officers arrived to find a brown-and-white owl perched with its eyes firmly shut, resting next to a chicken-shaped cookie jar.
The officers gently cradled the sleeping owl to remove it from the store and released it into a wooded area, where it flew into a nearby tree. The bird, an eastern screech owl, is nocturnal and typically nests in tree cavities.
It is not immediately clear how the owl got inside the store. An email was sent to the store's owners on Friday for comment.
