What had become a temporary home for a peacock in the vicinity of businesses at 6000 Shakerag Hill in Peachtree City ended Thursday morning as Peachtree City firefighters corralled the large bird with the help of a citizen who then took the peacock home to care for it. It is not known where the peacock came from or how it ended up in the center of the city.

Pippin Lynn at Decos Technology said the bird showed up at the small office park nearly three weeks ago. Lynn said the ornate bird would be seen at various times strolling around the area and would sometimes hang out in a small ditch behind one of the Shakerag Hill buildings.

“I tried to get a photo during the first couple of days but it would run away,” Lynn said, adding that later photographic attempts proved successful. “I guess maybe he got used to us.”

That familiarity, said Lynn and nearby office staff member Alison Wilson, might have been bolstered by the unknown number of people from offices and adjacent restaurants who were attracted to the unusual new resident and began offering it morsels of food. The human fare was accompanied by the peacock’s own discriminating taste for small flowering plants found on the grounds of the office park, Lynn said.

From the human perspective, the peacock’s new neighbors had concerns of their own.

“We were worried about its safety more than anything. Everybody around here became protective of this beautiful, amazing bird,” Lynn explained Thursday morning after the bird had been removed by firefighters. “He became our mascot for a while. We named him Peter Peacock.”

At one point, Fayette County Animal Control came to the site and attempted to subdue the large bird but were unsuccessful. But things changed Thursday morning when a citizen stopped in to notify Peachtree City firefighters about the bird.

Fire department spokesman John Dailey said an engine was dispatched to the area. Firefighters distracted the bird while the citizen was able to grab the bird and put it in a container. He took the bird home to care for it, Dailey said.

Despite acknowledged rumors around the office park that the bird had been taken from a location in Fayette County by a high school student and dropped off at nearby McIntosh High School as a prank, no one possessed any knowledge about the peacock, where it came from or how it got there.

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