At first, it looked like a straight-up chicken-napping.
Eight hens, roughly 40 young pullets and the noble flock rooster, Olgard, were gone from their coop at Urban Farm Oasis on Ashby Avenue and Sacramento Street in Southwest Berkeley when co-owner Kate Hobbs did her routine start-of-the-day check-in last Tuesday, Oct. 20.
Located up a steep ladder above a storage room, the coop’s padlock was broken, the door ripped off, the wall battered. Raccoons and coyotes were ruled out right away…