CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Last April, two turkeys attacked U.S. Mail Carrier Eddie Mitchell as he began his route along Huron Avenue. It was quite a scene.
“All the cars started pulling over,” Mitchell told Boston 25 News last spring. “People came out of their houses.”
Mitchell wound up needing a hip replacement because of the fall he took during the attack. He’ll be off the job until at least October.
Well, the turkeys have done it again — in a neighborhood not terribly far from that last attack. The victim this time: 80-year-old Jeannette Atkinson, who went out for a walk last week to nearby Harvard Square.
The first sign of trouble came at the end of her street, Clement Circle. As Atkinson prepared to head left on Sparks Street she saw two turkeys behind a parked car.
“I walked by the car and the turkeys took a big interest,” she said. “They walked on either side of me — very, very close. And I began getting very nervous.”
Atkinson regarded turkeys in the neighborhood as mostly a nuisance — but said she felt threatened and intimidated by the persistence of these birds.
“I had a pocketbook,” she said. “I took the pocketbook and kind of tried to swat them”
That shooed off the turkeys for a bit — but they kept coming back — six or seven times, Atkinson said.
“I wasn’t sure what was going to happen,” she said. “I thought about running across the street, but I thought they’d follow me, for one thing — and then there’s traffic to worry about.”
Atkinson decided to press on to Harvard Square, walking slowly.
“The next thing I knew there was a very sharp pain in my thigh,” she said.
One of the turkeys had sunken its beak into Atkinson’s leg. The wound was deep and bleeding. Fearing the birds had more pecking to do, she bolted across the street. Fortunately, the turkeys did not follow.
Atkinson wound up needing a tetanus shot.
Later, Atkinson posted about her adventure on social media — the first time she’d ever done that.
“The outpouring of comments was absolutely fascinating to me,” she said. “I now understand social media better. I liked the supportive comments. I didn’t like the ones that weren’t particularly supportive. And I could see how it could be addictive because I kept on looking as comments showed up on my feed.”
Some respondents offered suggestions for the next fowl run-in.
“Some were kind of extreme,” she said. “Like carry an AK-47. The one I liked the best was ‘carry a big umbrella.’ Open it and the turkeys will think that the umbrella is a male.
And that, the post said, should make them scatter.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW