It sounds like the kind of apocryphal tale that might do the rounds of social media or be told at length down your local pub.

After all, accounts of homeless street drinkers using bird seed to entice pigeons into sacks for nefarious purposes do sound rather far fetched.

But that is precisely what police in Exeter are currently investigating, following reports of several of the birds being taken from streets in the city centre in a mysterious spate of bird snatching.