By TIFFANY RAZZANO
Walk through the front door of the shop, at 316 Sunrise Highway, and you are greeted by the squawks and screeches of the many exotic birds that are for sale there along with a wide range of other animals, from puppies to lizards. The only evidence of the burglary is a piece of plywood covering half of the shop's back window, which faces Municipal Parking Field 1.
The theft took place between 4 and 5:30 a.m. on Aug. 14, according to the shop's co-owner, Marc Morrone. Morrone, who hosts "The Pet Shop with Marc Morrone" on cable television and has appeared on "The Martha Stewart Show" and "The Family Pet," was sitting in his car on the far side of the parking lot a little after 5:30 that morning. He was reading a newspaper, as he does most mornings before opening the store, unaware that it had been broken into. The owner of Kollner's Prime Meats, several stores east of Parrots of the World, told Morrone that his store's window was broken.
"I didn't notice anything from the other side of the parking lot," Morrone said. "I thought a patron from one of the nearby bars came over and broke it. They often come over to wake up the animals. I thought they just broke the glass, but when I walked in, I saw what happened."
Morrone discovered that the thief or thieves had made off with 20 African gray parrots, 20 blue fronted Amazon parrots, one toucan and four white cockatoos, with an average value of $1,200. "If I walked in on the guy, he would have shot me, so I'm glad I'm still alive," Morrone said.
Still, he is extremely concerned about the welfare of the stolen birds, and hopes they are being treated properly. "I can't imagine that the birds are any use to them dead," he said. "I can't figure out what anyone would do with so many birds. It takes me a year to sell that many birds. They're born in the spring, then sales trickle throughout the year. It's like stealing a box of diamonds. They're not going to walk to a bird fence and exchange them for a box of money."
The thieves obviously knew what they were doing, Morrone said. He said that Rockville Centre police told him it was likely a professional job, based on the way the window was broken. "They were able to break the glass in a way so that they broke the bottom part," Morrone said. "The sensors are on the top, so none of the cracks went to the sensors." As a result, the store's alarm was not triggered.
Morrone said the thieves must have been casing his store for days, if not weeks. "That's the chilling part of this," he said. "... It was calculated, which is always very, very scary."
A spokesman for the Rockville Centre Police Department said the investigation is under way, and offered no further details. Morrone said police told him they are pursuing leads "from here to Albany."
Morrone is trying to put the incident behind him. "It's a tragedy, but it's just another bump in the rocky road of life," he said. "I just hope they take care of the birds. But they didn't take everything. It's a financial and emotional loss, but it's not going to put us out of business."
Parrots of the World is no stranger to crime, Morrone explained, though it has never been the focus of something that appeared to be so carefully planned. Every so often, someone will dash out of the store with an animal without paying for it. "It was always in the heat of the moment," Morrone said. "It doesn't happen that often, though, at least not often enough to make us want to move or anything."
But owners and employees of other businesses in the area, which is dotted with empty storefronts -- most notably the former Loews movie theater, on the same side of Sunrise Highway -- are not that surprised by the robbery. "We've had trouble with theft too," said Christina Cavaliere, manager of National Jean Company, directly west of Parrots of the World, which, Cavaliere said, has seen its fair share of shoplifting. "I'm just kind of surprised because we've never had anything like a break-in."
But the owner of a nearby shop, who asked not to be identified, said his store had been broken into a couple of times over the past two years. "I'm never surprised at what goes on over here," he said. "There's a lot of riffraff over here, and not just people breaking in. You have to worry about vandalism. There's always vandalism over here. At least once a week I see something vandalized, whether it's my property or someone else's."
He added, "Rockville Centre has to do something about it. There needs to be some kind of watch. ... [Thieves] broke through a big glass plate window and just walked in and took the birds. Someday someone is going to get hurt, I think."
Paul Elsen, owner of Books, Movies, Music and More, near Parrots of the World, said, "It would be nice if there could be as many people patrolling the streets at night as those giving tickets around here." But for the most part, Elsen said, he feels safe owning a business in the village. "Really, you don't expect [break-ins] around here."
Comments about this story? TRazzano@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 221.
