LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Sam the parrot had spent 15 of his last 42 years living inside of American Printing, a downtown business on Fremont St., until early Wednesday morning when a man broke in through a back garage and stole him.
Surveillance video from Sam's owner Brenda Fishbach shows the man pulling the bird from the front room into the back, opening the cage, grabbing the bird, and fighting with it as he ran through the back and into the night.
"He's our family," Fishbach said. "We've had him 42 years."
She said she's owned Sam for nearly her whole life and feared the parrot, who's already over his life expectancy, won't survive outside of her care.
"I just pray that he didn't have a heart attack or something worse," she said. "He's never been through anything like that."
Fishbach said Sam has severe arthritis, takes regular medication, and is an animal few know how to care for.
"It's so important that he comes home and he gets to be with us again and we can take care of him so that he can live a few more years, hopefully," she said.
Fishbach's kids have never known life without the bird, and her customer at the printing shop have come to love his presence.
"I have one customer that drives by every morning and every night and honks and says 'hi Sam,'" she said.
Fishbach is offering a $1,000 reward for Sam's return with no questions asked.
"If the person that took him wants the money, we'll be happy to pay the money to have him back. It doesn't matter to us."
Anyone with information can call American Printing at (702)384-3821 or (702)210-5111.
