Aurora Hoarder Wants Good Homes For Birds

Aurora city officials said they will enforce a court order that allows them to enter the home Friday and remove the birds

David Skeberdis admits he may be a slob, but he says he's also a bird lover.

Numerous people have asked Skeberdis why he didn't just release his hundreds of birds when Aurora city officials threatened last week to take them from his Shadybrook Lane home.

"That would be completely heartless," Skeberdis said.

"I'm not a heartless person," he told NBC Chicago. "Really, when I first found out the city was coming in, I wouldn't have just got rid of the birds, I wouldn't have just sent them outside, I'm not that type of person. I mean, how heartless can you be?"

Skeberdis said he has spent two days preparing to turn over the birds to the Gerter Chicago Caged Bird Club, which promised to find them good homes.

He showed NBC Chicago a cage he prepared to hand over to the club with 12 birds of different species inside.

"I'm getting down to a deadline, I mean, yesterday I was up 21 hours," Skeberdis said.

When he opened the door to retrieve the cage, piles of garbage was seen on the floor and stairs, and the entranceway floor was covered in bird seed.

Aurora city officials enforced a court order that allowed them to enter the home at 10 a.m. Friday, the deadline for removing the birds. Inside, they found 120 dead birds and roughly 325 alive ones. Those that were alive appeared to be in good condition, a city spokesman said.

"I'm sad but I've gotten over that," he said. "I've had a week for remorse. What I want now is good homes. Believe me, I'm a bird lover. I might be a slob, I let things get out of hand, but the situation is, what I need to do, is get these birds good homes."

The city also wants to charge Skeberdis $13,000 to hire a third-party contractor to clean out the debris that litters the home. Skeberdis said he can't afford it, so the city is giving him two weeks to clean it himself.

The GCCBC is a 501c3 and is looking for donations. The storefront is costing them $1,000/month and additional funds are needed to feed the birds.  Donations can be made online at GCCBC.org.
 

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