If you’re in the Fairfax, Virginia area, you might want to consider avoiding people carrying birds. You should have been doing that already, but just in case you weren’t, this local thief shows why dudes carrying birds are not to be trusted.


Per a report from Fox 5, the “Bird Bandit” is a guy who walks around wearing a cowboy hat while holding several exotic birds. He also allegedly stuck up a dude with a knife in the parking lot of a McDonald’s. Interesting guy, wouldn’t you say?



According to police, the Bird Bandit walked into a few convenience stores wearing a patterned shirt and cowboy hat while carrying three parrots, providing us with some amazing security camera footage. Some time later, he whipped a knife out on some random guy near a McDonald’s demanding money.


That was in August. Since then, the search for the Bird Bandit had been ongoing (gosh, if only he had some identifying features). Now, it seems that police have finally nabbed the guy and, presumably, some of his many parrots.



Police say that the “Bird Bandit” is 25-year-old Hector Eduardo Rios from Germantown, Maryland (I know, I also thought he’d be from Florida). Anyway, he’s now been arrested for robbery and was recently transferred to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.


Police did not say if they allowed him to bring his parrots, but let’s just hope he got to take one or two — I hear you can swap them for quite a few cigarettes on the inside.