Police in southwest Iceland were dispatched yesterday to respond to an unusual call: an owl had gotten itself trapped in a ventilation shaft at the old Patterson airbase in Keflavík, and was in need of rescuing.
RÚV reports that the owl was first noticed by a man out walking his dog, who heard and then saw the owl inside a ventilation pipe sticking out of the ground on the base, and then called the police.
One of the officers on duty, Viggó Viggósson, told reporters that police made use of available resources in order to launch the rescue. By that we mean they found a busted plastic basket and two lengths of electrical cable, which they fashioned into a sort of manually operated owl extractor.
Once the police lowered the basket into the shaft, the owl reportedly “climbed on board as if she were ready to be rescued,” Viggo said. It took two attempts, but the owl was eventually raised out of the shaft, whereupon it took to flight, and gracefully soared away.
An alert officer on the scene captured the rescue on video, which you can see here:
(Source: Lögreglustjórinn á Suðurnesjum)
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