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A turkey creates a hole in a second story conference room window at the Moraga Town Offices. Photo Jill Keimach
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Moraga town employees are likely used to dealing with occasional ruffled feathers, but when one recent visitor had a heated argument with the building itself, its goose was cooked. Something startled a group of wild turkeys milling about the parking lot, causing one to fly up and into a second story room, breaking the window and tumbling inside. Town Manager Jill Keimach, whose office is adjacent, was away but happened to call in. "Everyone was in my office surveying the drama," she said. Moraga Police Lieutenant Jon King could hear the noise from his desk downstairs. "Of course I was right in the middle of something I could not leave," King said. By the time he went up, the turkey was simmering on the floor "looking back at me with one beady eye." Town employees had already called county animal control, so King simply sealed the crime scene. He had no chance to "grill" the bird. "It was lucky that it came into my conference room instead of the upstairs lobby one window over," Keimach said. King admits that of all the things he learned at the police academy "they never taught us how to deal with turkeys." The fatally wounded bird was laid to roost shortly thereafter, and the window was replaced a few days later. As Town Clerk Marty McInturf mused in the About Town newsletter: "Staff was unclear whether the turkey wanted to get closer to its reflection in the window or had a pressing issue to discuss with the Town Manager. Either way, the turkey did not get its wish (bone)," she said.
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