--- title: Massachusetts Woman Calls Police Over Burglar, Turns Out to Be a Duck description: Over the weekend, a woman in Massachusetts was in her upstairs bedroom when she heard loud banging noises downstairs. She did what most of us... canonical: https://time.com/51829/duck-home-intruder/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-04-07T15:00:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:34.505Z og:title: Suspected Burglar Turns Out to Be a Duck og:description: Quack og:url: https://time.com/51829/duck-home-intruder/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1829aeb012c46ae9/6986893ff983e72dad04d276/96619883.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 5224 og:image:height: 2939 og:image:alt: Wood Duck og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Suspected Burglar Turns Out to Be a Duck twitter:description: Quack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1829aeb012c46ae9/6986893ff983e72dad04d276/96619883.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Suspected Burglar Turns Out to Be a Duck > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 7, 2014 3:00 PM UTC  Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Apr 7, 2014 3:00 PM UTC Over the weekend, a woman in Massachusetts was in her upstairs bedroom when she heard loud banging noises downstairs. She did what most of us would do: she assumed someone had broken into her house and promptly called the police. But when officers arrived at the scene, they saw no signs of a break-in, the Associated Press [reports](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US%5FODD%5FDUCK%5FINTRUDER?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT). What they did find, however, was a soot-covered wood duck. He apparently got into the woman’s home through the chimney (hence the soot) and then made a bunch of noise. One of the officers managed to catch the animal and release him into a nearby pond. This is good news for anyone who’s heard a strange noise in their home at night and automatically assumed it was a serial killer or smartphone thief. 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