Police investigating Big Chicken carjacking

Marietta police are investigating a Tuesday morning armed robbery and carjacking at the famed Big Chicken.

According to Marietta police, the store’s manager said was about to leave in her red Ford Explorer to make a bank deposit when an armed man approached her. “The suspect demanded the deposit and vehicle from the manager and fled the scene,” police said in a statement.

Officers found the SUV abandoned in the Lassiter Mobile Home Park, which is located behind the Big Chicken. The store manager was not injured in the carjacking, and the suspect remains at large.

The Big Chicken, located along Cobb Parkway in southern Marietta, is a local landmark. The original Big Chicken dates to the 1960s when a restaurant proprietor saw a potential with the relatively newly repaved Cobb Parkway and erected a 56-foot-tall big chicken as a means of attracting motorists.

Today, the Big Chicken is home to a KFC restaurant.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact Det. Mark Erion at (770)794-5363 or the department’s tip line at (770) 794-6990.