THIEVES COMMIT CRIME OF GOOD TASTE
(By the Associated Press)
Jackson, Mich. -- Steve Tucker is hoping he can come up with
the ransom -- 350 pennies and a Mexican beer.
The hostage: his family's plastic pink flamingo.
When 9-year-old Michael Tucker went to get the mail Saturday,
he found a note with it.
The note, patched together from letters cut out of papers and
magazines, read, "'We've got the bird,'" said Steve Tucker,
Michael's father."Then all it said was 'we will be contacting
you soon.'"
A pile of pink feathers was found where the 2 1/2 foot flamingo,
purchased two weeks ago for $3.15, had been staked into the lawn.
"He must have put up a violent struggle," Tucker said Wednesday.
The Groups Against Gaudy Yard Art -- the kind of art that's
enough to GAGYA -- claimed responsibility for the abduction. A
spokesman for the group said the bird is unharmed.
The next ransom note demanded the pennies and one bottle of an
exotic beer. Tucker says heÕs never heard of the beer - Carta Blanca-
ans ia awaiting further instructions.
--Phil Mueller hi23ahg@mailhost.tcs.tulane.edu Tulane Graduate School Xavier Univ. of LA History Dept.