Raven Escapes Custody Of German Police

A malevolent raven described by authorities as "incredibly clever" is back at large after escaping from police custody. The bird had been scaring a woman for several days by tapping at her window, trying to steal her groceries and sitting on her car.

A raven caught by police after it had been stalking a woman for several days has managed to escape by pecking its way out of a cardboard box and is at large again in the town of Weinsberg in southwestern Germany, police said on Monday.

The woman complained to police that the bird had been terrorizing her by constantly tapping at her window, tearing open her shopping bags and sitting on her car menacingly. "The lady even claimed it had physically attacked her," Rainer Koller, a spokesman for the police in the nearby city of Heilbronn, told Spiegel Online.

To prevent a real-life repeat of Alfred Hitchcock's horror classic "The Birds," officers were dispatched to check out the situation on Saturday. A neighbor helped them to lure the stalker into a box with some bird food and they took it to a local bird sanctuary.

But that wasn't the end of the story. "It has managed to escape," said Koller. "It's incredibly clever." Time will tell whether the raven will return to haunt its victim.

The bird has either taken a particular dislike to the woman, or it has a split personality, said Koller, explaining that the raven had got on well with its victim's neighbor. "The neighbor said the bird was always friendly to him and that he stroked and fed it," said Koller.