{"id":27161,"date":"2025-07-21T22:41:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/27161\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T22:41:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T22:41:07","slug":"peacocks-vanish-from-historic-ryde-hotel-in-california-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/27161\/","title":{"rendered":"Peacocks vanish from historic Ryde Hotel in California | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here for updates on this story<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WALNUT GROVE, California (KCRA<\/a>) — Nearly all of the peacocks at the historic Ryde Hotel in Walnut Grove have gone missing within the past week, prompting an investigation by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

The Ryde Hotel, located deep in the Delta, has been home to a particular group of birds for at least a generation.<\/p>\n

“Here at the historic Ryde Hotel, we’ve had peacocks for at least a generation or so,” said Rafe Goorwitch, the catering coordinator for the hotel.<\/p>\n

These exotic birds were a common sight, from sitting in the trees to walking through the hotel lobby. The staff even named one of the peacocks “Alibaba.”<\/p>\n

An inside joke among staff was that they worked for Alibaba because Baba, one of the peacocks, would walk through the hotel like he owned the place.<\/p>\n

“It was not uncommon for him to walk through the ballroom before a wedding or even the dining room,” Goorwitch said.<\/p>\n

This week, hotel employees began to notice that their peafowl were gradually disappearing.<\/p>\n

“As we walked the property, we discovered that after the last three to four days, we’ve lost 37 of our 40 peacocks,” said David Nielsen, the hotel’s general manager.<\/p>\n

Nielsen has worked on the property for 21 years and said the birds have become a part of everyday life for the staff, making their disappearance even more upsetting.<\/p>\n

“The entire staff is pretty devastated,” Nielsen said.<\/p>\n

There is concern that the peacocks might be used for cockfighting. Nielsen got emotional as he told KCRA about his worries.<\/p>\n

“It’s possible that these peacocks are being used for cockfighting, which is horrible. So, we’re hoping we get them back,” Nielsen said.<\/p>\n

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case, as hotel staff suspect someone has been stealing the birds.<\/p>\n

“These peacocks, where you’re going into the thousands of dollars per animal, but it is a property crime. These are all felonies. It rises above that threshold. So no, 100%. It’ll be investigated by our Property Crimes Bureau,” said Sgt. Amar Gandhi.<\/p>\n

For now, staff continue to search for their beloved birds.<\/p>\n

“This area is known as the heart of the Delta, and it doesn’t feel like it right now. There’s just not a whole lot I can do except to say, please bring them back,” Goorwitch said.<\/p>\n

The hotel has installed new surveillance cameras across the property, and anyone with information is asked to call the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

\u200bCOPYRIGHT 2025 BY CHANNEL 3000. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THIS MATERIAL MAY NOT BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, REWRITTEN OR REDISTRIBUTED.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Click here for updates on this story \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0WALNUT GROVE, California (KCRA) — Nearly all of the peacocks at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[23576,3,79,452,201],"class_list":["post-27161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-national-and-world-news","tag-news","tag-science","tag-top-stories","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}