A pet turkey was on his owners’ Gulf Breeze property just days before Thanksgiving, when trespassers killed him with an arrow and took him away for their holiday meal, authorities say.
Tom the Turkey's owners, Brian and Christa Caponi, were distraught over their pet’s killing, but gathered enough clues that deputies swiftly arrested two suspects, according to a Santa Rosa sheriff’s report.
The suspects, Joshua Warren Anderson, 19, and Jacob Hayden Provo, 18, were taken into custody Monday on charges that include burglary, trespassing, larceny and tormenting, depriving or mutilating an animal, the sheriff’s report said.
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Provo was the Caponi family’s neighbor, the report said.
Tom was an eastern wild turkey whose estimated value was $300. His killing caused Christa Caponi to become upset and start crying, the report said. “Christa told me that Tom was a very friendly pet who she loved,” a sheriff’s deputy wrote in his report. She said she also was scared that someone had entered her property, the report said.
The Caponi family had surveillance footage of two men entering their property about 10 p.m. Sunday, and one of the men taking away the turkey, the report said.
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The Caponis told deputies that they also had seen Provo’s white pickup parked near their home earlier in the week, even though “there would not have been a reason for him to be parked” there, the report said.
Deputies caught up with Provo, pulling him over in his pickup, the report said. When deputies asked Provo about the dead turkey in his vehicle, Provo said he had killed the turkey in Milton, a nearby city, the report said.
Provo later admitted to trespassing on the Caponi’s property and killing Tom, the report said. Provo allegedly said that "he knew he should not have killed it and he should not have been there," the report said.
Riding in Provo’s vehicle was Anderson, who “admitted to being with Provo while the turkey was killed and stolen,” the report said.
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