Watch video as peacock breaks liquor bottles worth hundreds of dollars in California store

As crazy as it might seem, a peacock strolled into a liquor store in California on Monday (5 June) and left the owner poorer by hundreds of dollars. No, the bird did not help itself to the liquor in the store, but kicked some bottles down, causing damage worth $500 (£390).

The bird was spotted at the Royal Oak Liquor Store, Arcadia, a place it had no reason to be in.

The act was caught on camera by CCTV, customers and bemused shop manager Rani Ghanem. Animal control was finally able to catch the bird and release it into the wild.

The video of the bird in the liquor store has gone viral on social media sites.

Peacocks have been in the news in the recent past, and sometimes for the strangest of reasons.

Recently, in parts of St Petersburg and areas around Manatee County in Florida, there were several sightings of peacocks, seemingly coming out of nowhere. Local people thought the birds were being dumped by someone in their neighbourhood.

Wildlife Inc's Ed Straight said, "We thought that someone was relocating them. It's too much of a coincidence for them to be flying."

Even if someone was actually catching the peacocks and re-releasing them, it would have been a problem, Straight said. It would be illegal and inhumane.

In India, the peacock became a major subject of mirth recently when a former judge, Mahesh Chand Sharma, made some bizarre comments on the bird's sex life.

He said the peacock was India's national bird because it follows "life-long celibacy". A peacock does not engage sexually with a peahen to procreate, he pronounced. "It never has sex with the peahen. The peahen gets pregnant after swallowing the tears of the peacock," Sharma told Indian news channels.