Police In Gwinnett On The Lookout For ... A Woodpecker?

SNELLVILLE, GA — Police in one Gwinnett County city are searching for a suspect who stands about 18 inches tall, weighs about 10 ounces and was last seen wearing red, white and black feathers.

After a rash of broken car mirrors in Snellville over the past few weeks, police at first suspected misbehaving teens of causing the damage. As it turns out, the culprit is probably even younger, much smaller and can fly.

"We posted about mirrors getting broken in the Nob Hill area," the Snellville Police Department wrote in a Facebook post. "We believe that we have identified a suspect in connection to this crime. One witness observed a pileated woodpecker breaking her car mirror in the neighborhood."

In their original post last week, police said the damage was "most likely juveniles," said they had increased patrols in the area and urged parents to talk to their children about damaging other people's property. (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app.)

Later in the week, they weren't exactly eating crow. But they did feel like they had narrowed their search down to one unusual suspect.

"We will continue our patrols, but we suspect that this case is solved," the follow-up post said.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes pileated woodpeckers as one of the biggest, most striking forest birds in North America.

Nearly the size of a crow, they are black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest. Their main prey is carpenter ants, which is what they are after when you hear them pecking away at dead trees and fallen logs.

Lots of Snellville Police's Facebook followers were having fun with the post.

"A zoologist needs to have a talk with that adolescent woodpecker so it understands, misdemeanors turn into felonies when added together," one follower wrote. "Someone has to do an intervention."

"I think they belong to a gang," wrote another. "They all dress alike and have mostly the same markings."

Photo courtesy Snellville Police Department