SWAMPSCOTT, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Vinny the Turkey is big—and he's not afraid of cars.
He can be found almost daily at the intersection that leads to the Swampscott Mall and Vinnin Square, from which he gets his nickname. He's become a local celebrity, but he ties up traffic as he struts around his domain.
"He's always in the middle of traffic, bogs things down for a few minutes," Swampscott Police Sgt. Jay Locke told WBZ NewsRadio's Madison Rogers. "We'll go down and move him out of the way, but he'll come back a while later."
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Sgt. Locke said he's particularly attracted to his department's vehicles.
"He's attracted to the strobe lights of our cruisers, and the chrome hubcaps," he said. "He'll follow the car right out of the road like a pied piper."
He's loved by some, and hated by others.
"He has become a little bit of a nuisance to some people, and some people enjoy seeing him every day," Locke said.
One resident said Vinny is part of a larger trend of displaced wildlife in the town.
"If they had funding to get the turkeys into cages and bring them out into the wild, maybe that could work, but there's no resources for that," he said.
He said people often get out of their cars to shoo Vinny away, a dangerous move in a busy intersection.
"What can you do?" he said. "They don't want to get injured. A turkey will go on the defense if they feel they're going to be attacked, so it's just one of those things."
Police said they have discussed moving Vinny out of town, but have no definite plans.
WBZ NewsRadio's Madison Rogers (@_madisonrogers) reports
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