Fugitive Barn Owl

BARN OWL IN CAR CHASE ORDEAL
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HERALD REPORTER

07:30 - 08 December 2007

A car thief threw a stolen barn owl out of a car in Plymouth as he tried to dodge a police vehicle during a 65 mph city chase.

Officers in the following patrol car were stunned as the bird, called Addy, was pushed out of the speeding Ford Fiesta's window after it pecked driver Jesse James Lennox, aged 21, Plymouth Crown Court was told.

The owl had been taken by Lennox's passenger from a private aviary before the pair drove off. The three-year-old female bird suffered a dislocated leg and an injured eye during its ordeal, but is now fully recovered.

Police recovered the owl from the side of the road after the chase through Plymouth in July. Its owners Andy and Lynda Godbeer, who have nursed the bird back to health, say it was initially traumatised by its experience.

Lennox, of Grand Parade, Plymouth, who admitted aggravated vehicle-taking, was ordered to do 200 hours unpaid work as part of a two-year community sentence.

He had only been out of prison for a month when he took the car with friend Andrew Denton, aged 23, who admitted taking the owl at an earlier hearing.

Mr Paul Frost, prosecuting, said the owners of the Ford Fiesta car saw it being driven off from outside their home in St Pancras Avenue, Plymouth. A police chase followedduring which Lennox, who had no licence or insurance, drove the wrong way down one-way streets, jumped red lights, and travelled at 65 mph in 30 mph restricted areas. Mr Frost said: "At one point an officer who was following the Fiesta saw what he thought was a carrier bag being thrown out of the window. It was later found in fact to be a female captive barn owl."

The car eventually stopped after a minor accident and Lennox and Denton were arrested.

Mr Nick Lewin, defending, said Lennox had already spent three months in jail, and was now determined to start a new life away from crime.