MURPHY (AP) - A Williams man has been arrested for kidnapping the chicken that serves as a mascot for the local Ray's Food Place market.

According to his wife, 51-year-old Nicholas Gombos felt that the chicken, nicknamed "Speckles" had been mistreated.

In a long letter of protest, Kathy L. Dean said her husband stopped by the market last Thursday to pick up a magazine and spotted Speckles in a crate.

"She seemed frightened; the store was closed and no one was around," Dean wrote, so Gombos assumed the bird had been left there. He took Speckles home with him, and the couple bought another hen and rooster to keep the chicken company.

Josephine County Sheriff's Deputy Matt Tripp and other deputies went to the couple's home with a search warrant Wednesday and reclaimed Speckles.

Gombos ended up going to jail on charges of theft and interfering with police after he allegedly swore at and threatened deputies, and refused to accept a citation to appear in court on the theft charge.