Missing parrot sparks cruel prank calls to family

The owner of a missing parrot says she has been receiving cruel prank calls on his whereabouts causing her family further distress.

Co Co, the African Grey parrot disappeared from his Lowestoft home on 9 May.

His owner Amy, who does not want her surname publicised, appealed on social media to find him, but said that since then people had pretended to have him or have seen him, with one man even demanding money.

"It has been really tricky to try and navigate who is telling me the truth and who is winding me up about it... it's like one of my children is missing, I love him so much," she said.

Co Co managed to escape from Amy's home after her dog had accidentally opened the back door.

She described him as a "huge member of the family" and a "character".

Since he went missing she said she had received numerous calls about sightings, some genuine, some not.

"I had someone pretend they had got him and send me AI pictures of him, then say, 'I'll meet you in Tesco in town'," she told BBC Radio Suffolk's Sarah Lilley.

"Obviously I rushed there, so excited, I told my daughter, just for him to say I'm not going to consider leaving the house before you compensate me."

She said this man had asked for £50 before he would meet her.

But when she actually caught a sight of her parrot flying over her one day, she knew it was not real.

In other cases she said people had phoned late at night claiming to have Co Co before they then stopped answering her calls and turned off their phones.

Amy believed Co Co was currently around the Lowestoft Cemetery area and was hopeful of catching him soon.

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