TAYLORSVILLE, North Carolina — It was an act of fowl play.

North Carolina cops busted a man for making off with a 1,000-pound concrete chicken statue from a neighbor’s farm.

The Alexander County Sheriff’s office on Thursday said they have arrested Andrew Justice, 32, of Taylorsville for stealing the half-ton chicken last weekend using a tractor to lift it from in front of a neighbor’s property and drive it away. The base of the statue was found several miles away.

Unfortunately, only pieces of the 3-foot-tall statue have been found, police said. Investigators had said the bird was worth approximately $1,100.

The owner of the statue, Pete Gilleland, said he had bought the rooster statue for his wife’s birthday to place at the entrance of their North Carolina broiler farm.

“She always decorated for each holiday,and people were always watching to see what it would look like next,” he wrote on Facebook.

Justice has been charged with larceny and damaging property.