The Huntington Beach Police Department mentions on its Facebook page that it is looking for children approached by a man who wanted them to play with his parrot.
That is not a euphemism. Michael Joseph DeSilva, a 65-year-old Newport Beach sex offender, was arrested this past weekend for allegedly violating his probation by luring children to play with his bird “Mango” near busy Main Street and Pacific Coast Highway.
The agency already got one “hit” to its search for other possible victims in the comments to that posting.
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“Around last summer, he let my daughter pet his parrot,” writes a concerned parent. “She was with her brother. She told me that she scare [sic] because he look at her weird way. She even remember [sic] his parrot's name was Mango. If he is a sex offender, he shouldn't be around kids.”
Mango bit the boy's hand, adds the parent, who wonders if that was a message from the parrot to steer clear. “Maybe she was trying to warn them.”
Earlier, around 4:15 p.m. Saturday, another resident contacted police about a “suspicious male” in the city-pier area. Responding officers talked to the man and discovered he was a registered sex offender. A call to DeSilva's probation officer then revealed that being around kids violates his parole.
DeSilva apparently told cops he was not around any children, but witnesses reported otherwise. He was taken to the Huntington Beach Police Department (HBPD) jail for booking.
Anyone else who knows about a man trying to get kids to play with his parrot is asked to contact the cop shop. Those who are not inclinced to use Facebook can call (714) 960-8825.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.