VANCOUVER, B.C.: Levi Robinson woke up early Friday morning and heard a sound from inside his home he assumed was his two young kids messing about.
It was not.
It was, unfortunately, a seagull.
In a video Robinson captured of his avian visitor and posted to TikTok, the bird seems like a relatively calm seagull - but even a relatively calm seagull is still a relatively unwelcome guest.
'He was making himself at home pretty well'
"Buddy, you gotta go out that way," Robinson says, directing the seagull to an open window.
At first, the gull gets close to the exit, but seems to miss the opening.
"Uh, the window is over there dog," he says to the bird. "Yeah, right there. Go, go, go!"
"No, not that way!" he adds when the bird heads to the kids' play area.
The gull got in through a window in the family's third-floor West End Vancouver apartment, Robinson tells V.I.A.. When he first spotted the seagull, Robinson says it looked like it was pecking at some pulled jackfruit that had been left on the counter.
"I'm unsure how long it was inside for, but I imagine quite a while because he was making himself at home pretty well," Robinson adds.
Regrettably, Robinson's presence appeared to spook the seabird.
"Once he realize we were home he flew back and forth a few times and pooped all over my couch and bean bag in my kids' play area," he explains.
The gull also knocked over plants and other items.
Robinson tried to direct the bird to the open window, back the way it came, but it wasn't working. He went to get a blanket to try and net the gull, and the gull decided it'd had enough and found the open window.
Unfortunately for his wife, Robinson had to leave for work, so she had to deal with what the gull had left behind, along with two young children just waking up to the chaos.
Seagull teaches a valuable lesson
He wonders if the gull had cased their home prior to its break-in.
"There is always a seagull perched on the patio of my neighbouring building, so if that was the same seagull he had a good stakeout before breaking in," he says.
While it was a "pretty cool experience" in some ways (Robinson is interested in birds) he says he's learned his lesson about closing the windows.
"Invest in screens or keep your windows closed at night if you don't want poop all over your apartment!" he advises other Vancouverites.
Seagulls have been known to cause chaos when they make their way inside. Famously, in 2018, a man who had been banned for life from Victoria's Empress Hotel, went public with his devastatingly hilarious tale of the misadventures of a pepperoni-eating seagull that destroyed his room. Earlier this year, actor Benedict Cumberbatch performed the apology letter live onstage.
Video: Vancouver man find seagull inside their apartment
@thirteensoft PSA: close your windows at night #seagull #vancouver #englishbay #birdtok #univitedguest ♬ original sound - Levi Robinson