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NEW JERSEY — For the past four years, Kim Chiocchi has had what many would consider an unusual morning routine at her home along Caulfield Avenue in Deptford Township, New Jersey.
“I could sit on my front porch and say, ‘C’mon Fred it’s breakfast time!’ He’ll come moseying down the driveway,” Chiocchi said.
Fred is a wild turkey that’s amassed quite a following. She says peanuts are his favorite, along with bird seed.
“I enjoy seeing him every day,” she said. “I really do.”
But Fred has been known to stop traffic along Clements Bridge Road.
“I could be inside my house and I’ll hear ‘beep beep’ and I’m like, ‘Uh oh, Fred’s in the street,'” Chiocchi said.
“He’s like the town mascot,” said Bill Lombardi of Deptford. “But he does bother the cars. He pecks the sides of the cars.”
Across the street at DHY Motorsports, numerous instances of the turkey causing trouble have been caught on camera.
In one clip you can see him chasing down a customer in the parking lot.
“He pecks at your car and just goes after you. And if you run, he runs,” said Kristin Coryell who works at DHY Motorsports.
Also – they call him Tom over there.
“I know he has a couple other names but Tom the turkey just seems to fit,” she said. “We love him but he’s a little bit of a jerk.”
While his antics have gotten some attention, his human companions hope he sticks around for a while, and definitely hope he doesn’t end up as a Thanksgiving meal.
“When he’s feeling extra frisky, a lot of people like to say, ‘Oh, I’m going to put him on my dinner table and eat him.’ But we don’t like talk like that,” Coryell said.
Deptford does have a local ordinance that prohibits feeding wildlife in parks and on township property.
Turkeys can get aggressive, especially during mating season.
Years ago in South Jersey, wild turkeys were once obsolete. Now, due to wildlife restoration efforts, there are 20,000 wild turkeys throughout the state.
“NJDEP Fish & Wildlife advises against supplemental feeding of wildlife because it is not necessary to sustain wildlife populations,” said the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection in a statement. “People should keep in mind that deer, turkey, and other wildlife are wild animals and have adapted to cope to harsh weather conditions including deep snow, cold temperatures, and high winds. Feeding wild animals can also make them dependent on humans, ultimately making them less likely to survive. Local ordinances may make the feeding of wildlife unlawful as well.”
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