YouTube star comes to the rescue of parrot trapped in South Los Angeles storm drain

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Milly, a 10-year-old African Grey parrot, was trapped in a storm drain for nearly three nights.

Her owner, Arturo Vasquez, called the fire department and city crews but said they couldn't help. Then a relative, who was a fan of YouTube star Marlene Mc'Cohen, reached out to her.

Mc'Cohen said she immediately responded to the email.

"I was like, 'where and when? Send me pictures and if it's real, I will be there.' I don't know what we can do, but we did a lot," she said.

Mc'Cohen is a parrot advocate who encourages her YouTube viewers to "engage not cage" their birds. She rounded up a group of volunteers to help save Milly.

They worked overnight for two days, improvising with cameras, water, PVC piping and remote control vehicles. They even hired a plumber to help.

"(There was) lots of brainstorming, lots of innovation - how does the parrot think? That's mostly where I came in. It was really a bunch of innovators coming together to see what we could do," Mc'Cohen said.

The group hit several glitches throughout the process - from broken PVC pipes to Milly getting spooked and jumping on a pipe. It all slowed down the rescue at one point, but eventually on the third night, they managed to coax Milly out of the drain safely.

Vasquez told Eyewitness News he is eternally grateful to Mc'Cohen, Hope for Paws, another YouTube animal advocate, and every volunteer who stepped in to help save his beloved friend.