Wild chicken chase
at Northeast High School

A group of Northeast High School pranksters sent school officials and Philadelphia police on a wild bird chase of a different kind on Monday morning.
The youths released 87 live chickens in hallways throughout the school overnight, prompting the district to close the school for health reasons while cleaning up the mess, said Capt. Jack McGinnis, commander of Northeast Detectives.
Custodians discovered the birds scattered throughout the school, along with feed and water, at about 5 a.m. The birds were clucking about the hallways, McGinnis said. As students showed up for classes later that morning, they were instead sent home for the day.
In addition to the fowl, school officials also found the number “167” scrawled on about 200 lockers in the building. The graffiti is likely a reference to the current senior class, the 167th in school history, McGinnis said.
Surveillance video from inside the school showed four males dressed in black hoodies distributing the chickens and feed late on Sunday. Investigators believe that the suspects entered the school during a girls’ basketball game at about 5 p.m. and hid inside the building until everyone else had left. There is no evidence of forced entry.
Then, at about 9 p.m., someone delivered the chickens. Detectives interviewed representatives from a couple of local businesses that handle live chickens, but none recalled selling the birds to Northeast High students, McGinnis said.
The suspects can be seen photographing their handy work in the surveillance video. No alarm sounded. Investigators aren’t sure how the youths exited the building undetected.
The following morning, the school contacted animal experts from Fox Chase Farm to recover the birds.
Police have named no suspects in the incident. ••