One minute it was enjoying a peaceful perch in a Seattle suburban yard. The next, it was off on a fantastic road trip.
A stranger stole a Mountlake Terrace family's flamingo lawn ornament, then took the pink bird on a weeks-long vacation.
The stranger chronicled the adventures on a Facebook page. "Mingo the Flamingo" traveled to spring training, the Hoover Dam, Las Vegas, and, yes, the Flamingo Hotel and Casino.
Mingo originally belonged to Sarah Kelsey and her family.
“It’s been kind of a roller coaster,” she said.
Her boyfriend, Tom Feldman, said he first bought two flamingo lawn ornaments as a joke.
“I was like, let’s put some flamingos in the yard and put them in a cage,” he said, adding that one was previously stolen.
When the mystery person took the remaining flamingo, they left Kelsey a note.
“I need to get out of this cage for a while on vacation,” the note read.
Sarah Kelsey’s kids, Corbin, 9, and Calista, 5, figured they might not see their flamingo again.
“So we got two more,” said Corbin.
But the next day, the old flamingo showed up. The stranger named him Mingo – and a letter led the family to the Facebook page.
“The other day he just appeared in his pen again with some beads and a nice flamingo lanyard and also a Facebook page,” said Kelsey.
The family loved following Mingo’s adventures.
“Even went to the Flamingo (Las Vegas) casino, which I thought was ironic, cause he’s a flamingo,” chuckled Feldman.
Now the family wonders who took their friend on the road.
“It is completely a mystery,” said Corbin.
