No one knows what happened to Bensalem's Ben the Turkey, but there are theories
The table talk at the Levittown Salvation Army’s community meal was about the beef sloppy joes, but turned to turkey — Ben the Turkey.
“Ben? Nobody’s seen him in months,” said Cowboy, a man with a Southern drawl and impressive hat.
“No one’s sure where he went,” said his girlfriend, Cowgirl.
Questions have circulated about the bird, which became an instant phenom in Bensalem in the late summer and early autumn of 2021, when the fowl showed up at the corner of Bristol and Galloway roads.
Motorists were both delighted and infuriated when he took his time to cross Bristol Road, sometimes holding up traffic. Kids loved him. The bird got its own Facebook page, “Bensalem’s Turkey Trot.” A local musician wrote a song about Ben to good reviews.
When Mayor Joe DiGirolamo was told Ben was nearly struck by a car, he had the township create a red street sign warning motorists to be cautious, “Ben Turkey Crossing.” When the township posted a photo of the sign, it went viral, getting 26,000 views.
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Shopkeepers at a nearby strip center regularly saw Ben in the parking lot, wandering, or sometimes standing outside their windows, staring in.
“Then he just disappeared,” Cowboy said.
“Gone,” added Cowgirl.
“Now we was living right across the street at that intersection — you know that little farmhouse there — when all this was going on,” Cowboy said. “And there were people who didn’t like that turkey.”
They wanted him gone?
“Could be,” he said. “Not everyone likes turkeys.”
Yeah, especially if one’s blocking your way as you head to work.
“I don’t get people sometimes,” Cowboy said. He pulled out his phone and scrolled through a series of Ben photos he snapped. The bird takes a good pic.
“We seen him fly up into the trees nearby. That’s where he lived,” Cowboy said. “What’s become of him, I don’t know.”
Speculation and sadness hit “Bensalem’s Turkey Trot” Facebook page months ago when he no longer was seen in his usual haunts.
Last March, this post: “Anyone seen Ben lately? Need a welfare update.”
“Gone since last summer,” came a reply.
“Damn — anyone know what happened? Was gravy involved?”
At the township building this week, Mayor DiGirolamo was unavailable for comment. But an administrator, asked what happened to Bensalem’s favorite turkey said, “Nobody knows.”
Sarah Barrett, Bensalem’s animal control officer, is also at a loss to say.
“He was last seen at Gibson and Hulmeville,” she said.
It’s wooded.
“He could have relocated in the woods and found himself a lovely lady (turkey) and started a family,” she said. “Or a fox got him.”
There’s a possibility, too, that Ben wandered onto the nearby Pennsylvania Turnpike, Officer Barrett said, leaving it at that.
At the shopping center where Ben hung around, no one could say what happened. A gas station clerk, not a fan of the bird, said, “Good riddance.”
Cowboy has a theory.
“He was kidnapped.”
You mean birdnapped.
“Yeah, that.”
He heard rumors that the Game Commission came, grabbed Ben and relocated him to Lake Nockamixon up county.
“So maybe it ended OK for him,” he said. “Lotta turkeys up there, so he’d have friends.”
JD Mullane can be reached at 215-949-5745 or at jmullane@couriertimes.com.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Speculation abounds on what happened to Bensalem's favorite turkey
