A tale most fowl: Store's pet rooster chicken-napped

Jennifer Cording | (Salisbury, Md.) Daily Times

Show Caption Hide Caption The Rooster of Royal Farms Returns The red rooster who has strutted at the Parksley Royal Farms for more than 9 years was taken, but later was returned to the store. J.D. Burkhead raised the rooster and with the help of store manager Keith Justis, is able to visit it often.

PARKSLEY, Va. -- At first, the manager suspected fowl play at the Parksley Royal Farms convenience store. A surveillance camera caught enough of the early-morning theft on tape.

The stolen item? A longtime store parking-lot resident — a big, red rooster named Foghorn.

"Usually by 6:30, I take him a Tastykake," said store manager Keith Justis.

But on the morning of Friday, May 1, Justis was about 10 minutes late delivering the snack. It was 6:40 a.m., and Foghorn didn't appear.

"I knew, right then and there, that chicken was gone," said Justis.

He reviewed the surveillance tapes. The rooster was perched on a fence post at 6:30 a.m.

At 6:34 a.m., Foghorn was still on the fence post. But by Tastykake time, the rooster was missing.

"That quick," said Justis.

Justis had good reason to want the Rhode Island Red chicken back, it turns out.

And it wasn't just because Foghorn has his own YouTube video and is locally famous for pecking near the gas pumps or strutting on the sidewalk, as he's done for the last few years, sometimes with other chickens, and sometimes alone.

The red rooster is the property of a Parksley Road man who lives in the nearby rehabilitation center.

John Daniel "J.D." Burkhead, 70, was a store fixture himself until he moved from his house behind Royal Farms — where locals gather to drink coffee — to the nursing facility across the street.

He wasn't an employee, but Burkhead liked to hang out and help out, said Justis. He'd lend a hand with anything.

Justis and the other employees appreciated it. So, when Burkhead moved into assisted living, and he no longer could get himself to the store, Justis stepped up. He wanted Burkhead to visit his coffee-drinking buddies and the rooster.

"I'd bring him over to visit the old-timers," said Justis, who's known Burkhead most of his life. "I'd go over and pick him up. He'd always go out and visit the rooster and feed him."

And then, one morning, Foghorn was gone. Justis knew the chicken wouldn't miss a meal. He knew so many people fed him, the rooster could easily be picked up.

Justis and the others couldn't figure how to break the news to Burkhead. And what to say to the countless customers who knew the rooster by name?

So Justis hatched a plan to return the chicken to its rightful roost. He and a few others pooled their money. They advertised a $150 cash reward for Foghorn's return on local radio.

Then, Saturday morning, a man brought Foghorn back. He hadn't intended to steal him, he told Justis. He had thought the rooster was a stray chicken.

He didn't know plenty of people feed Foghorn, including a man in a house near the store.

He didn't know how important the rooster is to Burkhead and the store employees — one young woman once chased down a stray dog to rescue the rooster from its jaws.

Foghorn was fine upon his return, no worse for his two-week sojourn somewhere else. Maybe the rooster even enjoyed a change of scenery, though he's a little skittish about strangers getting too close now.

He'd been treated well wherever he went, but Foghorn does seem happy to be home.

"He's been on the fencepost today crowing," said Justis on Saturday, the day of the Foghorn's return. He didn't tell Burkhead the rooster was missing until the bird was back, he said.

Burkhead said Monday he was "very happy" to see Foghorn back at Royal Farms.

As far as the man who took the rooster, Justis has no beef with him. He's just happy Foghorn is home.

"He was a heck of a nice guy to bring him back," said Justis.