Costumed chicken statue stolen, 'spokes-human' releases milk carton photo
WAKE COUNTY, North Carolina -- A Raleigh woman needs your help to find her missing chicken which many people know as the "Lake Boone Chicken."
She dresses up the statue in funny little costumes to celebrate holidays and events, and she said someone stole it from its perch outside her driveway on Lake Boone Trail last Friday night.
And the whimsical outdoor ornament means more to the neighborhood than you might think.
A milk carton with his picture on it now sits where the chicken was once perched.
"He's merely known as 'The Chicken' sort of like Cher," Nancy Hight said. Hight is the chicken's owner, although she likes to refer to herself as "spokes-human."
He's dressed for every occasion from honoring Prince to Mardi Gras.
"Whenever I was sad and down, I would drive by here, I would just see it and I would be so happy for the rest of the day," 12-year-old Wake County resident Evan Jones said.
Crime-scene tape can be seen where The Chicken once stood because Hight put it there herself, hoping to bring him home sooner.
"We hope he's not riding around in some white, dirty, panel van, being kidnapped," Hight said.
She searched high, low and plain-old all over - even making a plea to the FBI via small cardboard sign.
The bird's been a staple in the neighborhood for more than 10 years, and he's been stolen before, so she whipped out the emergency back-up chicken.
"I have just kept him up there on my porch not realizing he would be called into service," she said.
Hight said the chicken had a purpose. She dressed him up as a Wolfpack fan, to cheer on the Tar Heels, and to show legislators that North Carolinians can work together - her fine-feathered friend sometimes clucking about politics, other times, just about kindness.
"I've had people stop and say I go by your house on the way to Rex Hospital to take my mother for chemotherapy, and all she wants to do is see what that silly chicken is wearing," she said.
The neighborhood hoping the thief will return it - no questions asked.
"Stop it right now and bring it back," one nearby teen said. "Bring it back in its green coat," another shouted.
"It's kind of like Tom Brady's jersey - what are you going to do with it?" Hight asked. "Everybody will know it's THE chicken, so how can you show it off?"
