Turkey Terror Updates

I'm shocked to find that it's been a year since we covered the wild turkey situation. With apologies for neglecting this important issue, here are a few recent incidents showing that their incursions have not slowed down:

-A normal Friday morning was interrupted at a high school in Brockton, Massachusetts, when a turkey crashed through a third floor window into a classroom. Fortunately it was before class had started, but enough people were around to get photos and video.

-In Michigan, a woman is being stalked in her own home by a tom she's nicknamed Godzilla.

He lurks in her front yard, screeching at her constantly, even jumping out occasionally and attacking her when she dares wander outside alone.

"I'm afraid to go out of my house," said Geisler, 69. "I have to go to the post office at 6 o'clock in the morning to avoid him."

When she returned home with groceries recently, Geisler couldn't get in her front door.

"I had to go next door to the neighbors and have him use a push broom to keep him away while I brought the groceries in," Geisler said.

The bird seems to treat harassing this woman as his job, commuting in from a nearby woods each morning and returning in the evening. A wildlife official suggests scaring the bird off with a big umbrella, but a reporter notes another possible strategy: turkey hunting season begins in just a few weeks.

-And a neighborhood in northeast Minneapolis is living with an entire flock of turkeys which stroll boldly down the street as in the photo above.

A recent community meeting heard reports that a woman had to beat the birds off when they attacked her toddler and a postal worker had one jump on her back.

But some downplay the danger. "At most, they are a 15 to 20 pound bird. What harm are they going to do to you?" said a wildlife officer. And many encourage the birds by feeding them.

Worst of all, some even celebrate the enemy: One local store reportedly sells a t-shirt reading "I heart the Johnson Street turkeys."