A British man reunited with his beloved African grey parrot, Barney, nearly a decade after the bird vanished during a devastating home burglary.
A British man reunited with his beloved African grey parrot, Barney, nearly a decade after the bird vanished during a home burglary. Robert Mortimer’s parrot was stolen from his family home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, in August 2017. Along with Barney, thieves also took a laptop and gardening equipment. The family’s Chihuahua, Paris, was fatally injured.
Mortimer, now 56 and a father of five, spent years wondering what had happened to Barney. After months of searching, distributing posters and offering a reward of around $680 for his safe return, hope eventually faded.
“I gave him up for dead a long time ago.”
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Nine years later, however, Mortimer received a phone call that seemed almost impossible to believe. A local police officer told him that Barney had been found alive.
“She called me up and said, ‘Your parrot’s been found,’ ” Mortimer recalled.
“I told her, ‘He can’t have been’ — it was nearly 10 years ago,” he continued. “I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I gave him up for dead a long time ago.”
The 19-year-old parrot was discovered wandering around an IKEA parking lot in Ashton-under-Lyne, roughly 20 miles from the place where he disappeared, on July 30.
A veterinarian scanned Barney’s microchip, which revealed his name and confirmed that he had originally come from Bradford. But the phone number linked to the chip was no longer active, as Mortimer had changed it during the years Barney was missing.
The bird was then taken to Hillary Harry and Friends Wildlife Rescue, where owner Gemma Dumbill began the painstaking task of tracking down his family.
“Lots of people got in touch claiming he was their parrot, but no-one had any proof,” Dumbill said.
“All we knew from the chip was that he was called Barney and was originally from Bradford,” she explained.
When Dumbill called the bird by his name, Barney appeared visibly surprised.
“I said to him, ‘Hi, Barney,’ and he looked at me as if to say, ‘How did you know my name?’ ”
Dumbill began searching online for a missing parrot named Barney from Bradford. Her search led her to reports about the 2017 burglary and ultimately put her on the trail of Mortimer.
“So I did an internet search for Barney and Bradford and I found an article about a parrot being stolen back in 2017,” Dumbill said.
With the help of a police officer she knew, Dumbill was finally able to locate Mortimer, who had since moved away from the house where the burglary occurred.
“She rang him while I was still on the phone,” Dumbill recalled. “He was really emotional!”
Before setting off to collect Barney, Mortimer retrieved the parrot’s old cage from a relative. He had kept it for nine years, unable to bring himself to replace Barney with another bird.
“After he was taken, everyone said I should buy a replacement, but I could never bring myself to get another parrot,” he said.
“No bird could ever have been the same as my Barney,” Mortimer continued. “You can replace electrical goods but you can’t replace a pet.”
At the time of Barney’s disappearance, police suspected the bird had been carried away in a sack. Despite Mortimer’s determined efforts to find him, two suspects were eventually released without charge, and Barney remained missing for years.
The loss had such a profound impact on Mortimer that he eventually moved away from the home where the burglary took place.
Now, Barney is settling into Mortimer’s new home, and fragments of the parrot’s old personality are already beginning to emerge.
“He’s already started saying ‘Hello’ and ‘Morning,’ ” Mortimer said.
“Nine years is a long time for a bird but I think he’s beginning to recognize me,” he continued.
Barney was also known for his uncanny ability to mimic Mortimer, rather than other members of the family.
“He was always a brilliant mimic but he would only copy what I say, never anyone else!” he recalled. The clever bird even had a mischievous trick that he used to fool Mortimer’s wife, Lisa.
“One of his favorite tricks was to imitate the sound of the phone ringing, then when my wife went to answer it, he would start laughing at her!” Mortimer said.
After years of uncertainty, Mortimer is simply grateful to have his feathered companion home again.
“It’s just brilliant to have him back,” he continued. “It’s still sinking in that I’ve finally got my Barney again.”
“I’m just so grateful to everyone involved in getting Barney back to me,” he added.
