Yesterday morning, I dropped my clothes off at a local wash-dry-and-fold laundromat in Albany. Figured if I gave the laundromat my clothes in the morning, by the afternoon my clothes would be ready for pickup.

Well … when I arrived at the laundromat at 5:30 to claim my clothing…

There was an additional guest at the laundromat. One who stumbled into the facility and couldn’t find his way out.

Say hi to the uninvited guest.

Yep, a crow somehow flew INTO the laundromat and couldn’t get out. Patrons were scrambling around to get away from the bird, little kids were laughing when the bird dropped a dropping on the floor (“Mommy, the bird made a doody…”), while the owner was looking for anything to use as a weapon to hit the bird.

The bird tried to fly away … and flew all around the laundromat. Eventually he flew towards the front … only to crash beak-first into one of the windows. It would lay there for a couple of moments, then flap its wings and fly over to the rack of dryers.

Then it landed on a video game console.

Yeah, I don’t know about you, but I’m betting he can’t play the video game – there’s no quarters in his wings.

Several patrons tried to trap the bird by throwing towels or bedsheets on him, but the bird was too fast. I found a stick, and tried to guide the bird to the front door.

“Don’t hit the bird,” one patron said to me. “Don’t hurt the bird. A bird is life.”

“He’s life until he craps on your clean clothes that just came out of the dryer,” another person said. “Hit the mother-”

“I’m not hitting any bird,” i said. “I’m just trying to steer him towards the entrance.”

Of course, any time he got near something that was photography-worthy, I put down the stick and picked up my BlackBerry. Listen, none of you are going to believe this story unless I have pictures.

Eventually one of the patrons threw a blanket on the crow, grabbed him with the blanket, and then took him outside and released the crow in the parking lot.

Okay. Everybody have fun.

Now for the main reason I visited the laundromat in the first place.

Yep. Clothes are all washed and folded.

And no little white bird droppings on them. So that’s a plus. 😀