A 21-year-old parakeet has become a local hero after he alerted his owner and helped foil a burglary attempt in their neighbourhood in Florida.
The parakeet 'Emerald' raised an alarm when he started squawking louder than normal in his cage.
"I heard this bird making this serious squawking," the owner Suzette Beesley said on Tuesday.
She quickly realised something was wrong and when she peeked out her back window to check, she saw a stranger breaking in to her next-door neighbour's house.
Beesley called 911, as Emerald kept a watchful eye from the confines of his cage, 'MyFoxTampaBay.Com' reported.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies soon surrounded the home and tackled 31-year old Hans Christensen as he tried to bolt.
"I may have called 911, but I give praise to this bird as the one that told me that someone was getting into that home," Beesley said.
Christensen is now behind bars, and Emerald is being hailed a hero by the whole neighbourhood.
"We pretty much don't have a watchdog, but we have a watch bird for the neighbourhood," Beesley joked.
Christensen is still being held at the Hillsborough County Jail. He's charged with burglary and grand theft.
