Owl copies Santa, but trips carbon monoxide alarm instead of leaving gifts

Looks like Santa Claus won’t be outsourcing his jobs to owls anytime soon …

Cincinnati Animal Care shared a bizarre case to Twitter, which involves a barred owl, a carbon monoxide alarm and a chimney. They even posted an image of an officer holding onto the seemingly bewildered owl.

“Never a dull moment for Hamilton County Dog Wardens!” they wrote. “A family was recently evacuated from their home due to a carbon monoxide leak… Caused by an owl stuck in their chimney!”

The post said a man named Lt. Conners rescued the bird, who was “evaluated and released.”

While it is unknown why the owl decided to take a trip down the chimney, a report from the University of Minnesota suggests barred owls are “cavity nesters,” meaning they might “mistake a chimney for a hollowed out tree when they are seeking a place to lay eggs.”

And unfortunately for those owls, they aren’t likely to escape because they can’t “vertically fly back up” once they go down the chimney.

Good food for thought since this is typically the time of their nesting season, which begins in March.