From the Weather Network:
After
one of the mildest winters on record in Southern Ontario, the number of
geese on campus increased, and they seemed to be more aggressive than
normal. “They
give you a little look and then they charge at you,” says student
Michael Chung. “Their wings go big and they fly at you, and never stop
honking. It’s just crazy.” Temperatures
began pushing 30 degrees in late March, and the Canada Geese began
banding together. It was as if they were gaining strength from the
warmth. Then it turned cold last week. And that made the geese very angry.
The whole situation came to a head on Friday, when the geese entered the Davis Centre. Dan
Anderson is the Director of Police Services at the University of
Waterloo, and he said he received a call in the afternoon that the geese
had taken over the library. He was also made aware that a hostage was
involved. “We
were surprised, the First Responders, when they got here, that the
geese had actually set up a perimeter and were giving intelligence
inside as to where we were coming from,” says Anderson. “So we had to be
a little more covert in the way we first attacked it.” Anderson added that once the tactical teams understood what the situation was, they were able to breach the perimeter. “They managed to push them back, get a hold of the hostage and get her out of there." The
hostage Anderson is referring to is UW student Leslie Pucan. Pucan’s
friend, Jacqueline Serran, told media that she knew how dangerous geese
can be. “I was really, really concerned,” Serran told us. “It was crazy. I had trouble sleeping last night. It wasn’t a good night.”
Pucan agreed to meet with The Weather Network’s Natalie Thomas to discuss her ordeal. “It’s really hard for me to be back at the library,” Pucan told Thomas. Held hostage for nearly four hours, Pucan was studying for exams in the library when the geese broke in.
“All
of a sudden I heard this big honking noise and I didn't know what it
was,” Pucan says. “It startled me. And I turned and it was the geese.
And I went to go get my phone and it was gone. And I just saw, it looked
like the biggest goose I'd ever seen. Maybe the leader or something. He
just took it and he was running through the stacks." Once the tactical teams were close to her, Pucan swears she heard one of the geese say something. “He honked at me,” Pucan recalls. “And he just said ‘Happy April Fools.’" Yes, HAPPY APRIL FOOLS from The Weather Network. Thanks
to our friends at the University of Waterloo for playing along. And for
the record, no geese were harmed in the making of this story.
