Neighbors contact Channel 11 over wild turkeys terrorizing drivers, pedestrians

PITTSBURGH — People living in a Pittsburgh neighborhood contacted Channel 11 for help, stating that wild turkeys are running amok and causing major concerns.

“They come out from around cars like gangsters, and there’s three or four of them, and you don’t know what to think, you don’t want to do no harm to them, but you don’t want to get harmed,” said Mark Anthony Livingston.

Mark and his wife, Lorraine Livingston, called Channel 11 after Mark was chased nearly a quarter mile by a flock of three birds. Doorbell camera captures the turkeys chasing him up to his doorstep on Woods Run Avenue in Brighton Heights.

The couple said that the birds have been taunting pedestrians, drivers, and even the mail carrier for months now.

“We have a lot of bikers on this road, they could attack the bikers on their bikes. We have kids waiting for the bus and it puts them in danger,” Lorraine said. “We don’t know what types of diseases they’re carrying.”

Channel 11 captured video of the wild turkeys aggressively surrounding cars and pecking the vehicles as drivers honked.

“They don’t move, they don’t want to move, you drive around them, beep at ‘em, honk, they come after you, your car,” said neighbor Craig Romain.

Another neighbor provided Channel 11 with a video of the turkeys blocking traffic, corroborating that the mailman is growing afraid to deliver mail in the area.

The Livingstons told us that traffic is often backed up due to the birds’ refusal to move, as drivers try to avoid hitting them.

The couple said that they’ve contacted the Pennsylvania Game Commission and Pittsburgh Police, but haven’t received help. Channel 11 reached out to those entities as well, but had not received a response at the time this article was published.

Neighbors plan to discuss the concerns during an upcoming community meeting, where they will push for an ordinance banning individuals from feeding the turkeys.

Lorraine told us she witnessed the turkeys being fed nearly a year ago, but only started to notice them as a nuisance until this year.

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