Wild turkey busts into art store, but loses bid for freedom

Northampton police officers dispose of a wild turkey that flew through a glass window at the back entrance of the Guild Art Center on Main Street Wednesday afternoon. The bird was mortally injured as it tried to fly out again.">

By Owen Boss

Staff Writer

NORTHAMPTON - Employees at Main Street's Guild Art Center are used to dealing with colorful customers, but were taken by surprise Wednesday afternoon when a wild turkey flew through one of the store's plate glass windows.

Ali Osborn, who manages the downtown art supply store, said employees were preparing for the midday rush when they heard a loud crash from a basement walkway that opens next to the store's main entrance.

When investigating the noise, Osborn said employees found a large wild turkey sitting at the top of the walkway staircase, visibly dazed from crashing through a basement window that was more than 6 feet off of the ground.

"It must have been going really fast to break through it because that plate glass window is about a half-inch thick," Osborn said. "It shattered glass all over the place."

Although there were no customers in the basement walkway when the turkey broke through the window, Osborn said it caused quite a stir while sitting at the top of the stairs facing one of downtown Northampton's busiest sidewalks.

Osborn said he immediately called the police and animal control to help remove the turkey but after about 10 minutes of milling around it attempted to fly to freedom. The bird was mortally injured when it was unable to break through another window.

"By that time we were all down there watching and it started beating its wings, and in the little space it could find, it tried to fly out the same way it came in," Osborn said.

Strangely enough, Osborn said, this wasn't the first time the Guild Art Center has had a run-in with a wild animal. Several years ago, Osborn said a deer found its way into the store.

"It got inside in the middle of the night and ran around the store and went totally berserk," Osborn said. After damaging a lot of merchandise, Osborn said the deer eventually died in the store.

Police reportedly responded to the scene at about 3:30 p.m., shortly after the turkey's attempted escape, and transported its remains to the local department of public works for disposal. Lt. Michael Patenaude said it was the first time in 29 years that he had heard of a wild turkey invading a downtown business.

Owen Boss can be reached at oboss@gazettenet.com.