The male Harris’ Hawk was brought to justice by its namesake, local resident Steve Harris, who managed to trap it in a cage, before two falconers rushed over to help, one of the falconers, Alan Greenhalgh, told CNN on Friday.

Greenhalgh had stopped at Flamstead, a small village about 30 miles north of London, on his way home, to boost efforts to catch the bird. Just as he arrived, he saw the hawk fly down from a chimneypot, “chase a guy across the road and tried to … knock him on the head,” he said. “I thought: ‘Oh, you horrible little bird.’ Then he had a go at an Amazon driver. And I think ‘Oh my goodness me,’” Greenhalgh added. Then, he watched as Harris left his house to go for a run “and (the hawk) starts chasing him down the road … for about 3-400 yards and you can see him ducking, diving out the way a bit.” Chaotic scenes like this had become commonplace in Flamstead in recent weeks, with some locals resorting to wearing helmets to protect themselves from the attacks.

Harris even began wearing a helmet when he went out running after he had been attacked twice, he told Britain’s PA Media news agency. He hadn’t let his two children out in the backyard for weeks since it became one of the hawk’s favored spots, he added. Meanwhile, Glyn Parry – a 91-year-old resident – made a chinstrap out of a shoelace to keep his hat on his head after the hawk stole two of his woolen beanies. “It was such an unusual thing, so I thought it won’t happen again, but it did,” he told the BBC. The hawk’s reign of mayhem came to an end last Thursday, when it went into a local garden, where Greenhalgh spent about 40 minutes trying to coax it down into a trap before it flew back to Harris’ yard. (CNN/LNP)