{"id":86873,"date":"2025-08-16T09:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T09:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/86873\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T09:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T09:08:11","slug":"marauding-seagull-is-now-a-connecticut-celebrity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/86873\/","title":{"rendered":"Marauding seagull is now a Connecticut celebrity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOff Beat\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tSome suggest Cecil has also lured his fellow seagulls \u2014 or \u201ctrainees,\u201d as one person put it \u2014 into a life of beach crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"
\n\tA seagull (not Cecil) glides over the roof of Cape Pond Ice in Gloucester. Aram Boghosian for The Boston Globe, File\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBy Abby Patkin<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAugust 15, 2025 | 4:06 PM\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

2 minutes to read<\/p>\n

Move over, sharks \u2014 there\u2019s a new creature striking fear into the hearts of New England beachgoers<\/a> this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cCecil the Seagull\u201d has been terrorizing sunbathers and building a lengthy rap sheet at Waterford Beach Park in Connecticut, where he\u2019s become \u201cnotorious for stealing sandwiches and biting fingers,\u201d Waterford Recreation & Parks warned in a Facebook post<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cCecil got himself two more sandwiches just yesterday,\u201d the department wrote in a recap of his felonious follies. \u201cHis determination is amazing and of course his love of sandwiches has to be respected. With eyes like an Eagles, a hovering ability like a Hummingbird, waiting for the right moment to dive in like a Pelegrin Falcon then BAM!! there he is with another sandwich\u2026..\u201d<\/p>\n

Park officials urged picknickers to secure their food and keep an eye on the sky, \u201cbecause Cecil is something special. Also, we are worried about him eating too many carbs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments below the Waterford Recreation & Parks post shed further light on Cecil\u2019s depravity.<\/p>\n

\u201cCecil bit my 5 year old eating her sandwich!!\u201d one commenter wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been personally victimized\u2026.he knows no shame and will go in your lunch bag,\u201d another added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Others suggested Cecil has also lured his fellow seagulls \u2014 or \u201ctrainees,\u201d as one commenter put it \u2014 into a life of crime.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are getting word that Cecil has taken on other members in his gang,\u201d Waterford Recreation & Parks confirmed in a later post<\/a>. \u201cPlease help us by remaining vigilant and capturing photos to share with the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Town officials have also put up signs warning beachgoers about Cecil. After all, as NBC Connecticut<\/a> reporter Melissa Cooney put it, Cecil \u201ctakes food and no prisoners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did speak with animal control, and the reality is, it\u2019s a wild animal, it\u2019s causing no true harm, so there\u2019s not much we can do but laugh along with him,\u201d Waterford Recreation and Parks Program Coordinator Tim Cieplik told NBC Connecticut.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cecil fled when Cooney attempted to chase him down for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not the only New England seagull to make headlines for wreaking havoc; a scourge of gulls prompted Sullivan\u2019s Castle Island in South Boston to close its outdoor dining section<\/a> for a period in 2023, while a Nantucket seagull took its theft once step further last summer by nabbing a man\u2019s wallet<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still, Cecil\u2019s mischief has bemused some beachgoers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people will get mad, and they\u2019ll try to throw things or try to make noise, or kids will chase it to get it to go away,\u201d Waterford resident Terry Screen told local news outlet Fox 61<\/a>. \u201cBut hey, he\u2019s just trying to get a snack.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cCecil the Seagull\u201d has been terrorizing beachgoers at Waterford Beach Park in Connecticut this summer. \u2013 Waterford Recreation & Parks<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Profile\t<\/p>\n

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between. She has been covering the Karen Read murder case.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for the Today newsletter<\/p>\n

Get everything you need to know to start your day, delivered right to your inbox every morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Off Beat Some suggest Cecil has also lured his fellow seagulls \u2014 or \u201ctrainees,\u201d as one person put…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":{"0":"post-86873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86873","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=86873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}