Chicken crosses the road, then stays.

[ccharles000]

(08-08) 18:18 PDT Kennewick, Wash. (AP) --

Why did the chicken cross the road? In the case of Jerry Sleater's 5-foot, 400-pound bright blue rooster, that's apparently as far as whoever was trying to steal it could get it.

When the 76-year-old Eastern Washington man went to get his newspaper Thursday morning, the big bird named Rudy was lying beside the road.

Sleater has kept the metal rooster perched on his property south of Kennewick for two years and says, "Rudy is a family pet. He doesn't go anywhere, but he's part of the family."

Sleater said he thinks that whoever was trying to steal Rudy got spooked after pushing the oversized rooster down a dirt embankment.

He said he purchased Rudy two years ago from a yard ornament store that was going out of business.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/08/08/national/a150213D39.DTL


Jerry Sleater, far right, watches from his four-wheeler early Thursday morning, Aug. 7, 2008 as his son-in-law Dave Vaught, left, and employee Jose Avalos Arturo lift Rudy, a five-foot tall, 400-pound yard ornament, from the shoulder of East Badger Road in Kennewick, Wash. (Bob Brawdy / AP)

[JVS]

1. zOMG! It looks like they're lynching that poor bird!