Woman Accidentally ‘Flirts’ With Wild Turkey — And Immediately Regrets It

For the past few days, a feathered visitor has been loitering around Victoria Smith’s workplace in California — a wild turkey who’s taken to strutting around the parking lot like he owns the place.

Smith had only ever really seen him from afar. That is, until recently.

This week, while heading to her car on her lunch break, Smith noticed the turkey walking around just a short ways away from her. She decided to greet him with a playful gobble.

“I wanted to see if I could emulate his voice, and to see if he would think it was similar enough to respond to me,” Smith told The Dodo.

Little did she know what would ensue as a result.

Though Smith’s turkey imitation was basically gibberish to her, it apparently sounded pretty alluring to the bird. He seemed to take it as her flirting.

“I hoped for maybe just a gobble back,” Smith said. “But instead he started walking towards me pretty quickly. I was sorta surprised, but also freaked out a bit, actually.”

Smith quickly hopped in her car, hoping to then go eat. But the turkey wouldn’t stand for it.

He stood in front of her vehicle, refusing to let her leave:

“He marched back and forth in front of my car, peering at me,” Smith said. “The turkey held me captive.”

Like a ham-handed wooer who’s misread someone’s romantic interest, the bird actually came off as quite the bully.

This went on for a while.

Eventually, after being accosted for about 15 minutes by the overly amorous bird, Smith was rescued from the awkward encounter. A coworker who was also leaving for lunch saw Smith’s plight and decided to intervene.

“My coworker ended up driving up to my car to distract the turkey, calling him over to her car so I could go, but I really don’t know how she then left herself,” Smith said with a laugh.

Smith believes that mating season for turkeys is underway, which may explain why he took even the slightest sign of interest in him totally out of proportion. It was a mistake Smith has no plans of repeating.

“I will definitely refrain from gobbling in the future,” she said.