Gobble, gobble … Gotcha!

LYNN – When Keith Sheppard tossed a net over a wild turkey roaming near the Lynn YMCA last summer, the city animal control officer figured he had bagged his bird. Little did Sheppard know he was about to embark on a game of cat and mouse that ended Wednesday when he captured the turkey on Washington Street.”Five months and we have finally got him,” Sheppard crowed over the police scanner airwaves following the apprehension.Sheppard’s turkey hunt actually dates back to last June when several people called the city animal control hotline to report a turkey running across Neptune Boulevard. Sheppard responded, armed with a net, and attempted to snag the turkey. The bird broke through the netting, and the chase began.Sheppard’s job mostly involves scooping up wayward dogs, but local wildlife occasionally grab his attention in the course of a day’s work. He found the turkey living in a vacant lot on Spencer and Federal streets, where the bird found shelter and vegetation to munch on.Man and bird had almost settled into a stalemate until August when a call to the hotline sent Sheppard to Theresa Richard’s home, where the longtime Western Avenue resident spotted the turkey settled in next to her string bean plants.Sheppard set out to capture his quarry, but the turkey flew to a rooftop off Washington Street.”I think he recognized my uniform,” Sheppard said.He received “several calls a week” through the fall and into the holidays reporting the turkey’s whereabouts in the Western Avenue and Washington Street area. Sheppard suspects several friendly local residents started feeding the turkey, but every attempt to nab the bird proved unsuccessful.”He was hard to catch,” he said.Sheppard finally got his chance on Wednesday when two calls to the hotline sent him to Washington Street near Laighton Street.”He was right smack dab in the middle of the road,” he said.Sheppard crouched behind a car, crawling along in the snow-clogged traffic until he came abreast of the wayward bird.”I jumped out and grabbed him. He’s very strong, but I got him in the net,” he said.Sheppard estimated the turkey weighs about 20 pounds. He carefully cut the bird out of the netting, locked him up in the city animal control truck and drove the turkey about 300 yards into Lynn Woods before releasing him into the wild.Sheppard said the turkey is young and healthy and has a “better than average” chance of survival.”It’s going to be up to him,” he said.