GREENLAWN, N.Y. (AP) – Fifteen wild turkeys that strutted into a suburban hamlet on Thanksgiving Day left just in time – before dinner.

The turkeys showed up mysteriously on Thursday morning, drawing crowds of onlookers, but left in single file at about 1 p.m.

Suffolk County police were called when the turkeys created a traffic hazard while crossing a road. But the officers didn’t have to intervene because the birds kept walking – and hadn’t been seen or heard from since, residents said Friday.

Police said they didn’t suspect fowl play because they had received no reports of turkeys stolen from any nearby farms or homes.

Resident Joyce Logan said there was no practical joke involved and the turkeys could have wandered into the neighborhood from nearby woods, where she had been hearing gobbles since summer.

Logan said the wild turkeys walked away in a straight line between her house and her neighbor’s and she went back inside her home to prepare a store-bought turkey dinner for her family. She said that, unlike some neighbors, she never had thoughts of catching one of the wild turkeys in her yard and plopping it on her dinner table.

“I can’t eat something that I’ve met,” she said.

—

Information from: Newsday, http://www.newsday.com

AP-ES-11-23-07 2155EST