Police in Brazil have taken a parrot into custody after the resourceful bird allegedly warned its owners of an imminent drug raid.
Polly may be a parrot, but he ain't no rat.
In a bizarre story that's making headlines in Brazil, police are attempting to question a parrot in hopes of gaining information about its drug dealing owners.
On Monday Brazilian police were almost thwarted by the cunning parrot as they conducted an undercover raid on the Teresina home of two alleged drug traffickers.
As police approached, the wily bird began shouting "Mama, Police!" in Portuguese according to local news outlet Oliberal.com.
Unfortunately for its owners the bird's warning came too late. Police arrested a man and woman after finding large amounts of cash along with crack and marijuana on the property.
"He must have been trained for this," said an officer involved in the raid
"As soon as the police got close he started shouting."
Despite his earlier squawking though, now in police custody it seems the bird is keeping his beak shut.
"So far it hasn't made a sound… completely silent," said one Brazilian reporter who encountered the bird.
"Lots of police officers have come by and he's said nothing," local vet Alexandre Clark confirmed.
Although the parrot has not been named by police (presumably for his own safety) the crafty bird has been dubbed "papagaio do tráfico", the "drug trafficking parrot," by local news outlets.
Once police have completed their investigation the bird will be handed over to a local zoo where it will be retrained to fly for three months before being released back into the wild.
Once the news hit their feeds, Twitter users seemed ready to nominate the bizarre story for "tweet" of the year.
Because you have to appreciate that kind of loyalty.
It seems Polly is one hell of a wing man.
Though some were not so sure how the crafty fowl would hold up under interrogation if he started getting cagey.
But we're pretty sure that Polly ain't no stool pigeon.