Giant pink flamingo snatched from perch near Parma signboard, police search for culprits

PARMA, Ohio — Someone managed to pull the 7-foot-tall, 150-pound pink flamingo flanking the Parma Writing Sign in Parma's Anthony Zielinski Park from its concrete perch, police said on social networks Saturday afternoon.

The flamingo was found around 5 a.m. Saturday, 50 feet north of its original location, near the registration sign on West Ridgewood Drive. It's unclear whether police or a resident recovered the metal tropical bird, but it clearly suffered damage. Police released photos showing the flamingo, cracked in the middle of its leg, with a bubblegum pink paw still stuck in the concrete. The bird's right leg does not appear in the photos.

State Rep. Sean Brennan, a former Parma City Council president, led the fundraising effort for the script sign and, later, the flamingo. Popular California metal art design firm Metal Zoo created the flamingo at a cost of about $2,000, with the city agreeing to pour a concrete slab before installation.

“The flamingo is the unofficial bird of Parma, and we're looking into it,” Brennan said in an interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer in January.

Iconic Channel 8 late-night TV character Ghoulardi (Ernie Anderson) referred to plastic displays of kitschy garden art when mocking Parma.

“The flamingo was one of those things that Ghoulardi made fun of. So, over the years, we made it our own. And now we’re proud of it,” Brennan said in another interview with cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Parma police at 440-885-1234.

Kaylee Remington is a shopping and entertainment trade reporter and metro reporter for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Read his work online.