Before the man knew it, the seagull had flown the wallet up to the roof of a nearby building.

A man was walking down Main Street near the waterfront area around 9 p.m., when a bold seagull swooped down and snatched his wallet, Gloucester Mayor Sefatia Romeo Theken said in a Facebook message to the Globe.

“I guess the guy bought pizza, had [his] wallet on top of [the] pizza box, and swish came Mr. Seagull,” Romeo Theken said.



Fortunately, Romeo Theken said, volunteer workers were getting ready for the city’s Saturday night block party, so they had a bucket truck on hand. City volunteers hopped in the bucket, and went up to retrive the wallet.


The wallet was found inside the seagull’s nest along with two baby chicks, according to the police report. The mother gull wouldn’t let anyone near the nest, so the workers used a bag of bread to distract the bird while they retrieved the wallet.

“The thief escaped being arrested!” Romeo Theken said in a message.

No further information was immediately available.

Elise Takahama can be reached at elise.takahama@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @elisetakahama. Adam Sennott can be reached at adam.sennott@globe.com