Lost Gallery: What is going on here? - Capture of Chickadee Leffingwell

This rare photograph of “Chickadee” Lefingwell lll (pronounced leFINGwell) shows him about to be captured by Agent Harlan Kruhz (no relation) in an elm tree just outside the Dirtpile city limits in either Ohio or Ontario. According to legend, “Chickadee” was known to elude his pursuers easily by flying into tree tops and hiding among the leaves.

His downfall, pictured here, was when “Chickadee”, steeped in the false confidence of hundreds of previous escapes, taunted agents from a lower perch. Agent Kruhz, on loan from the Holloway Junior High Jump team had been specially selected and trained for the capture of the elusive G. P. Lefingwell III. While other agents dressed nattily as sunflower seeds distracted the nefarious felon, Kruhz leapt into the tree behind “Chickadee” and put the arm on him thus ending the troublesome but illustrious career. It was now safe again to wear pink at polka parties and Chocolate Chip Cookie challenge events.

That historic day, February 15th 1915 (probably a Saturday or a Tuesday, no one knows for sure) is described prominently and in great detail, in primary school history books. The lengthy notation is credited for a renewed disinterest in the subject of history among students of that era.

After his rapid conviction, Lefingwell was incarcerated at the Indiana Yodeling Institute for Young Individuals. (The ‘I YI YI’…) He was pardoned in 1974 by Gerald Ford along with some other forgotten hardened criminals. “Chickadee” spent his last days working in a kite factory and dreaming of the old days.

Decades later, modern DNA evidence would prove that not only was Lefingwell III innocent of all charges, he was actually not a “Chickadee” at all but just another loon.

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Area 51 and a Half
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Don't take my picture! Oh! You DID didn't you! This is a collection of photographs that disappear on the way home from the photo processing shop.

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