STOLEN Heathrow hawk Milo is home after escaping his captors by “untying his knots” and hiding in a Sun reader’s garden.

The Harris hawk was snatched by a gang of three men from owner Layla Bennett’s van near the airport on Tuesday.

3 Milo the hawk was stolen from owner Layla Bennett's van last week

But it is thought six-year-old Milo, who stops birds getting near planes, managed to free himself and fly away.

And after an appeal in The Sun on Saturday, a reader called to say Milo was in her garden in West Drayton, West London — less than two miles away from where he was birdnapped.

Layla, 34, of Powys, Wales, said: “They had managed to coax him into a box so he didn’t escape again.

“I arrived at their home at around 3am. I immediately checked him and it was Milo, although he had plucked some of his feathers due to the stress of this ordeal.”

The theft was caught on CCTV at the Mercure hotel near Heathrow.

However, staff would not release footage to Layla or The Sun and only gave it to police if they came to the premises.

Layla feared the worst for Milo as he is unlikely to take food from strangers. When recovered, he had not eaten in several days.

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The thieves had removed his ID tags and Layla believes they were preparing to sell him before his escape.

She added: “He is an expert at untying knots. When he’s at home, he will often untie himself and just sit there, he seems to take pleasure in it but these thieves wouldn’t have known.

“I assume they tied him up and he managed to free himself and escape. I’m so relieved he has been found safe and well, albeit with a few feathers missing. This could have been a bad ending.”

3 The Harris hawk was found in a Sun reader's garden less than two miles from where he was taken

3 Milo is now back home with owner Layla Bennett

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