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Penguin In The Backpack?

My sister went to college in Dudley and her halls of residence were within walking distance of the infamous zoo + castle. She swears blind that someone in her halls (although suspiciously enough she doesn't remember his name, what course he studied or anyone else who actually knew him. Apparantly said student was a bit weird and one night he came back from a night of drinking looking very pleased with himself and locked himself away in the bathroom. Later on, after a lot of noise coming from the baths, someone broke in and found him with a penguin he had stolen from the zoo.
[*edit - I have just re-read that and realised it reads as though the student was doing something with the penguin but that wasn't my intent at all. Nothing fishy :p was going on]

Needless to say, nearly every student from her college knows this story and is convinced it really happened - I have heard other variations regarding other colleges/unis which are near zoos and I did read somewhere in the paper about it being a UL and untrue - but I can't remember any more details than that.[/i]
 
Be honest--who wouldn't love a penguin?![/quote]

Penguin is also the name of a popular cocolate biscuit bar (a staple of kid's packed lunches) who's slogan for years was p-p-pick up a penguin. Quite nice they are too. :)[/quote]

They're also perfect for re-creating the Aussie 'Tim Tam Challenge' (Tim Tams are biscuits similar to Penguins). Bite opposite corners off your Penguin (biscuit) and drink your coffee or other favoured beverage through it like a straw. Hey presto, chocolatey coffee! The challenge is to drink the entire drink before the Tim Tam / Penguin / Aldi Seal Bar disintegrates. Hours of fun when you're bored and watching Countdown.
 
Penguin Joke

Guy runs into the main office at the Zoo.

"Have you lost any penguins?" he asks excitedly. "Have you lost any penguins?"

"No, none," he's reassured.

"Good Lord," he says. "Then I've just run over two nuns!"
 
I just heard off my friends little daughter that a penguin was stolen over christmas. I didn't notice anything in the news. When I asked her where she had heard it she asked if I was calling her a liar... bloody kids
 
Penguins

Zoologist is driving south towards Cincinnati, Ohio, with seven penguins in his car, intending them for the Cincinnati Zoo. His car breaks down, though, and he flags a passing motorist.

"Sir," he says, "if your're heading for Cincinnati would you mind taking these penguins to the Cincinnati Zoo?"

"Sure thing," answers the motorist. "Happy to do it. I'll have them at the Zoo in less than an hour."

When the zoologist arrives back at the Zoo later that evening - no penguins.

Three weeks later the zoologist spots the car tooling around Cincinnati, still with the penguins inside.

Zoologist once again flags down the motorist.

"I thought you promised to take the penguins to the Zoo!!"

"But I DID take them to the Zoo!" answers the motorist. "We had so much fun there that we've been going different places every day. Yesterday we went to the Art Museum, today we're driving downtown to see the Reds play baseball and tomorrow we're all going for a bi-plane ride."
 
milk23 said:
I just heard off my friends little daughter that a penguin was stolen over christmas. I didn't notice anything in the news. When I asked her where she had heard it she asked if I was calling her a liar... bloody kids
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I just noticed this story on the BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/4562694.stm

Penguin zoo refuses to lose hope

A zoo is refusing to give up hope even though the search for a stolen baby penguin has so far proved fruitless.

Three-month-old Toga has not been seen since vanishing from Amazon World on the Isle of Wight more than a week ago.

After a tip-off that the rare bird had been dumped in Portsmouth docks in a plastic bag, a search of the harbour failed to turn up anything.

Meanwhile, parents Oscar and Kyala appear to be preparing to lay more eggs, says the zoo.

The couple were showing signs of nesting and had begun 'courting', said manager Kath Bright.

She added that zoo staff were still following up all leads over Toga's disappearence and were determined to find out what happened.

"I don't think we will give up. We will follow up every phone call we get - which is what we have been doing over Christmas," she said.

The zoo has offered a £1,000 reward - with more than £2,000 more from donations - for the return of Toga, who they said would die without its mother.

Toga lives on a special diet, needs to be kept cool with access to plenty of fresh water, and will not take food from humans.

It is thought thieves may have scaled a 6ft (1.8m) outer wall at Amazon World, before clambering over an 8ft (2.4m) metal and concrete barrier to steal Toga.

Toga was the first South African Jackass Penguin to be bred at the island zoo. There are now only six adults left there, including Toga's parents.

There are about 150 to 200 of the rare and endangered breed in the UK.
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I suspect what started out as a drunken prank has ended up as a sad display of stupidity with the people involved being too scared of public opinion to admit they were total tossers!
I know the Isle of Wight and can attest to many such stupid things going on.
 
did they ever find Toga (trying to resist the temptation to pop to aldi to buy seal bars. its too cold to go out)
 
Vampire Penguins

I have been preaching for more than a quarter-of-a-century, based on even more years of cryptozoological expertise <g>, that the standard, stereotyped Central and Eastern European "tuxedo-attired" vampires are nothing more and nothing less than severely out-of-place Vampire Penguins.
 
Basal Temperature

There's another Urban Legend about a boy who steals a young penguin from the Zoo and hides it under his coat or sweater. The boy is later discovered FROZEN TO DEATH by the penguin.

This of course can ONLY be an Urban Legend, and a rather ignorant one at that.

Penguin basal temperature is higher than human.
 
Oh, that must mean my Dad is one.

We used to take terrible advantage of him at night before we had central heating.
 
I heard this story off someone tonight. She was insistent enough that it was true that I didn't think it would be polite to say any more than "are you sure that's true?", because I didn't want to create an argument or embarrass her over something so silly, or to look like a big geek.

She was very specific about the whole thing, knew exactly who it had happened to. She said that the kid who nicked the penguin had Down's Syndrome and a nickname and two other siblings, and they went to an amusement park and dad told them not to go on the water rides but the Down's kid came back late and soaking wet (apparently the kids were allowed to go off on their own, separately, which seems very odd especially if one of them has Down's syndrome. I also wonder what dad did all day on his own at a theme park).

And then when the parents found the penguin and called the park, they were told to keep it in the fridge in a bowl of water overnight. I don't think she thought this bit all the way through at all, because penguins aren't usually in refrigerated enclosures as far as I'm aware, and also, a live bird in the fridge? Ewwww.

I think she went as far as to mention which amusement park this was supposed to have happened at, but I can't remember which she said. That would have been interesting, because I don't think they have penguins at theme parks usually.
 
Not that I'm saying the story is true but Drayton Manor Theme Park has a Zoo attached and many years ago when I went to Chessington, they had a zoo too. I don't know if they're still there.
 
And Woburn Abbey: dunno if that's still there either, though.

Following a visit there I harboured brief ambitions, at the age of 6, to become a monk on the basis that abbeys had cable cars and zebra in the monastic grounds :).
 
Having worked in zoos for over twenty years I can definitely state this is a UL and crops up regularly about every six months (always at a different zoo!)
 
Littlegreylady said:
Later on, after a lot of noise coming from the baths, someone broke in and found him with a penguin he had stolen from the zoo.
[/i]
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Just reminds me of the time my friend stumbled to the bathroom in his shared house one morning to find a goat in the shower cubicle. Later on, he re- awoke, to see a trail of goat poo leading out of the bathroom and down the stairs. I think he went back to bed... Those crazy kids.
 
This suggests that a penguin was genuinely stolen and then returned:

Happy ending for plucky penguin

Piglet has become the first penguin dad at the centre

A penguin which was at the centre of a kidnap ordeal two years ago has become a dad at Scarborough Sea Life and Marine Sanctuary.
Piglet, a Humboldt penguin, was stolen from his enclosure in May 2004 and was later found abandoned in a back garden.

At first, staff at the centre worried that Piglet might not recover from the stress of being separated from his female partner George.

But George has now hatched eggs, making Piglet the centre's first penguin dad.

The couple's two hatched chicks have been seen poking their heads out of their nest.

Keeper Lyndsey Crawford said: "It's a happy ending to the story of one very plucky penguin.

"Humboldt penguins are sociable animals that form very strong bonds with their chosen partners.

"The stress of separation and being bundled away to an unfamiliar location could easily have killed Piglet.

"He was very nervous and withdrawn for weeks after his rescue, but not only has he bounced right back, he's become our first penguin dad."

Following the new parents' example, two more Humboldts - Dick and Clumsy - have now successfully hatched a chick.

Ms Crawford said: "We have to keep a careful eye on all three hatchlings to make sure their parents keep feeding them.

"First-time penguin parents, as with many other animals and birds, are not always the most diligent, but so far it's looking good."

The first two chicks are expected to emerge from the nest within the next few weeks.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nort ... 121752.stm
 
I've been keeping myself from looking at this thread, mainly due to the images the title conjures up, but I must add....

....I don't know about a penquin in a backpack, but I recently became acquented with someone who has a "pocket-duck".
 
I met up with a group of friends a while back, when I said I was now working with children with Autism and one of the women said "Oh... a FOAF son has that [Autism] and you never guess what he did recently..." Strangley, ever since I've worked with children with special needs and have told people, this story has cropped up a couple of times and the child in question is always Autistic.
 
Stolen monkey found with children

A squirrel monkey stolen from a zoo has been found playing with children in south London.

Zoo keepers at Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey discovered he was missing from his enclosure on Monday.

They said SpongeBob was not a pet but a wild animal and people were warned not to approach the monkey.

A member of the public found him playing with children in Clapham on Wednesday and handed him in safely to police in Brixton, officers said.


The zoo said that two-year-old SpongeBob, a Bolivian squirrel monkey, had been safely returned to the theme park after his three-day ordeal and would be put back in his enclosure following health checks.

But keepers said he was still upset and unsettled after what had clearly been "a disturbing experience" for him, during which he suffered from weight-loss, hunger and stress.

"We are hopeful he will get back to his normal, playful self soon," head of mammals Sonia Freeman said.

The theft was discovered early on Monday, when Chessington zoo keepers noticed two fences had been damaged in the new Monkey and Bird Garden walk-through area.

Ms Freeman said at the time that keepers were "devastated" at the theft of the "much-loved" monkey, known for his "cheeky personality".

SpongeBob had only been at the zoo for three months and it was reported that his disappearance left all the squirrel monkeys in a state of turmoil as he was the only breeding male in the group.

Police said their investigation into the theft was still under way.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/5197774.stm
 
Snopes concluded this was a UL back when the story (and this thread) flared up in 2005.

Child Abducts Penguin in Backpack?
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/birdnapped/

Among other reasons, they noted the same basic storyline had appeared in 1993:
Healey, Phil and Rick Glanvill. “Urban Myths: The Hyperactive Zoo-Child.” The Guardian.3 April 1993 (p. 29).
 
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