Houdini, a white and coral cockatoo, has been missing since Tuesday afternoon. His longtime owner, Peggy Joos, says he was stolen right out of his cage on her front porch.
"It had a padlock on it," Joos said. "I had just cleaned out the cage, gave him fresh water and food. What they did was pulled it this way, and popped it, popped it open, popped this out of there."
Joos thinks the crooks planned to steal the bird since, she says, they used a bungee cable to tie her front door shut. "They just wrapped it around... and hooked it so you couldn't get out the door," she said.
Police placed the value of the talking bird at $1,000 in their report. Peggy has had Houdini for 36 years, all but 10 of those living in this same house in Merced. So, to her, he's priceless.
"Can you imagine having something that long and somebody coming along and take it," she said. Joos' husband, Allen, was the only one home at the time of the crime. Houdini was long gone by the time Allen noticed something was wrong.
"I looked out the door and the cage door was open," he said. "That's the first I knew of it and the bird was gone."
"You learn to love animals, and it's not right when people take someone's pet," Peggy said. She now fears Houdini may not be alive. "He's probably really stressed out now, you know. He's used to being here with us."
The Joos family says if Houdini is still alive he's probably repeating Peggy's name.
They filed a report with the Merced Police Department. The only suspect description available right now is two boys on bicycles between 14 and 19 years old.
Investigators say anybody who has Houdini can turn him in anonymously.