WASHINGTON COUNTY (KDKA) — A pair of gas stations in Washington County had a freeloading guest who just wouldn’t leave.

A wayward turkey set up shop at a BP station on Route 519 and a Sunoco station across the highway. She had been loafing around the area for about three weeks.

Sunoco employee Matt Mance says she took treats from some customers, while chasing others.

“Some people got a little scared by it,” he recalls. “Other people were just amazed and would pull out their phones. It was kind of a thing happening in Eighty-Four.”

Customer Dawn McWilliams says she had a close encounter of the bird kind.

“It was like a foot away from me,” she says “I went in, paid for my gas, came out, and it was still there. I even got a really good picture of it.”

The bird developed a routine of sorts.

“I come out here to the shed and I turned around, and the thing’s right behind me,” Mance adds. “It followed me all the way to the door, and it’d just sit at the door and start pecking at it like it almost wanted in.”

Her often foul mood led to some grousing. So the Pennsylvania Game Commission was called in.

“We saw them over there with the net, and the thing was just running rampant,” Mance says. “It was actually kind of entertaining.”

They finally caught the tricky turkey, and took her to a more suitable location, leaving customers scratching their heads.

“My theory is that the turkey is a very sophisticated, feathered NSA spy drone,” says customer Marty Howsare. “It’s keeping an eye on things around here.”

A game commission officer says the turkey was actually captured and released into a flock of other turkeys a couple of miles away.

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