‘Help Me!’: How Florida Parrot Solved Mystery Of A Frantic Cry

LAKE WORTH BEACH, FL — Rambo is rarely silent. He sings and talks up a storm when he’s outside his Florida beach home. At 40 years old, Rambo the parrot has a lot to say.

But on Dec 29, Rambo screamed for help.

Alarmed, a neighbor picked up the phone and called 911.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office dispatched four deputies to find out what was going on at the undisclosed Lake Worth Beach address.

This was all happening as Rambo’s pal, unaware that police were on their way, repaired the brakes of his wife’s car in the driveway. Sure enough, it sounds like someone is in distress — or that someone is tunelessly caterwauling — according to doorbell camera video showing police interrupting the guy's mundane Sunday chore.

It’s unclear what the officers say, but the guy dismisses their questions with a single word:

“Rambo.”

It’s a summons as much as an explanation. The dogs behind the home's high-board fence are barking their displeasure with the intrusion, but Rambo remains elusive.

“I'll bring out the screamer to you,” the guy says.

He disappears behind the fence and out of the camera lens range for a few seconds. When he reappears, a large green parrot is perched on his right hand.

“Meet the boys in green,” he says, introducing Rambo.

Amused, the cops laugh, their changing postures signaling relief that there's no hostage situation going on and no one's in danger.

After a short while, Rambo says “hi” and “hello,” and the slightly off-tune parrot is cleared of anything nefarious.

“Sometimes Rambo yells 'help, help, let me out,' ” his owner explains in a post on the sheriff’s office Facebook page. “Something I taught him when I was a kid and Rambo lived in a cage."

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