Feed the pigeons or Sid gets it

As kidnaps go, it was not exactly run-of-the-mill.

The victim was a stuffed seagull, snatched from the stage of the Hackney Empire during a production of Dad's Army.

Now, more than a week after the Evening Standard reported the crime, we have received a bizarre ransom note - together with a photograph of the kidnapped seagull Sid.

The note, made from cut-up newspapers, promises to release Sid on condition that his owners feed the Trafalgar Square pigeons.

Which, unfortunately, is illegal. The note was accompanied by a picture of Sid being held by the kidnapper, who is dressed in a hoodie and wearing a polar bear head. In his other hand is a copy of last Monday's Standard.

The note says: "I am the Seagull Snatcher! Made famous by your newspaper. If you want Sid back you must meet my demand. Feed Sid's mates - the pidgeons [sic] of Trafalgar Square and I will return him."

Sid was grabbed from the stage of the theatre by a middle-aged man during the curtain call. The thief was chased by producer Ed O'Driscoll who confronted him outside.

However, the man - described as thickset and in his forties - had already passed Sid on to an accomplice.

Mr O'Driscoll confirmed that the bird in the picture was Sid. "Yes, it's him," he said. "He looks in good health. I am pleased to see him in good nick. We would like him back very much. He is part of the company.

"What do I have to do? Do I have to get someone down to Trafalgar Square feeding the pigeons? Tell us what we need to do and we will try to organise it. Would they like us to make a donation to Animal Rescue? To the RSPB? Or the RSPSB - the Royal Society for the Protection of Stuffed Birds?"

Mr O'Driscoll bought Sid on eBay for about £80 after the designer of the show, Dad's Army - The Lost Episodes, said a seagull would make a good prop. Since the show, featuring Leslie Grantham as Private Walker, first started touring last autumn Sid has made nearly 100 appearances.

Until the ransom demand arrived Mr O'Driscoll thought Sid was taken as a dare. He said: "I thought he had ended up sitting in a bar somewhere, having peanuts thrown at him. What are you going to do with a stuffed seagull?" The demand arrived at the offices of the Standard in a brown padded envelope addressed to the newsdesk. It was handwritten in black marker pen and postmarked the Old Street Post Office.

Strangely, this is not the first time Mr O'Driscoll has been involved in an animal kidnap. He also runs an arts charity and last year put on an exhibition in the Forest of Dean called Sheepscape, featuring life-sized fibreglass sheep. One was stolen and a ransom note received. Mr O'Driscoll said: "The police lifted fingerprints off the note and an arrest was made." Two animal kidnaps in a year was, he admitted, a " coincidence" but added: "There are lots of strange people out there." Mayor Ken Livingstone banned pigeon feeding in Trafalgar Square in 2002. Last autumn, Westminster council was granted a bylaw to prevent feeding the birds on the north terrace, where activists had been dispensing emergency rations.