"When he went missing it wasn't just my bird that went missing, it wasn't just the shop's mascot that went missing, it was the town's bird," Sean said.

"Everybody comes in to talk to him, everybody missed the bird, everybody knew the bird.

"And at the end of the day I thought how stupid of someone, if they are going to steal a bird, to steal the most famous animal in town - which he is."

Horace was stolen from the shop on Saturday, November 24, last year.

Sean said Horace was first noticed missing the following morning.

"The staff member who came in for the Sunday shift sent me a message asking where Horace was," he said

"I answered that he'd be there somewhere but she said she had checked everywhere and he wasn't there.

"So I went down to the shop and looked everywhere, I called out to him and I thought 'he can't go anywhere' so I sat down and went through the security camera footage."

What happened was captured on CCTV and the matter is now before the courts.

During the four months Horace was missing, Sean did not give up hope of finding him.

"I travelled to Newcastle, Sydney and a few other places on hunches that people had seen him in people's houses," Sean said.

"I had to sort of put up a front and say I was interested in buying a bird.

"I drove to Newcastle and back in one day just to have a look at a bird the police rang me about that was for sale on Gumtree.

And it was Parkes Police officers who eventually found Horace - by coincidence - and he was here in town the whole time.

"The police were awesome," Sean said.

"They were all cranky Horace went missing in the first place.

"They were at a house and saw him sitting in a little cage in the corner of a room. They brought him down to me in the back of the paddy wagon.

"As soon as I opened up the back door he came over to the side of the cage and I knew it was Horace."

The five-year-old parrot is a little worse for wear though and is not the same bird that went missing from his familiar surroundings.

"He was talking before he went missing and now he's not," Sean said.

"It's going to take a few months of rehab to get him back to what he was."