Firemen wasted over an hour searching an office in the West Midlands for an escaped parrot this week.

Staff had heard squawks but when they were unable to locate the bird, called in the professionals. Fresh from rescuing a cat from a tree, the boys in uniform rushed round to the office in Willenhall to locate the feathered felon.

An hour later they found it. It was a PC screensaver which intermittently produced parrot squawks. We were on hand so we don't know whether the lads thought it was all a lot of fun, or, more reasonably, smashed the PC to pieces with their axes.

Technology is a dangerous thing. ®