TWIN FALLS, Idaho — A tortoise was discovered missing from the Twin Falls Zoological Society on Monday morning. After reviewing security video, images of the suspected tortoise-takers were posted to social media, asking for help. Within 20 minutes of the original post, the persons in question had apologized and promised the safe return of the tortoise.
- Twin Falls Zoological Society offers a variety of hands-on experiences with exotic animals.
- On the evening of Sunday, March 10th, a visitor slipped a Herman's tortoise into his sweatshirt and walked out.
- When the abduction was discovered, a plea on social media resulted in almost immediate results, with the safe return of the tortoise and apologies from the persons involved.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Josh Dowling has always been around exotic animals. His mother rehabbed endangered tortoises.
"She was taking me to classrooms when I was five years old to help her present to classrooms, so they've always been around," Josh told Idaho News 6.
His interest in caring for animals became an interest in sharing the wonders of nature with others. What began years ago as the Magic Valley Reptile Rescue became the core of a larger vision.
"We try to focus on giving an opportunity to interact with the animals,” Josh said. “Hands-on is really kind of inspires that that unforgettable experience."
The Twin Falls Zoological Society at the Magic Valley Mall gives visitors a chance to interact with many of the animals.
Because so many of the animals are accessible to the public, staff does a headcount of the critters twice a day, and on Monday morning, the count came up short.
"We’re supposed to have five and there’s only four,” Josh said.
So they went to the security tapes.
"We started looking at the footage and we're able to see the incident where individuals came up and they look like they were definitely kind of casing it.”
After they figured out when the tortoise was taken, they crowdsourced the investigation with a post to social media.
"Within two hours of being posted I was personally contacted by everybody involved all four of them and called apologized and offered the safe return of the tortoise," Josh said.
The Jerome Police Department retrieved the tortoise, and held a donut banquet for him, naming him 'Officer Turtle' before returning him to the Zoological Society on Monday evening.
"We offer this to the community and really hope they're enjoying it and they see it as an asset,” Josh said. “When something happened to us, and they went to bat for us, it was really cool on our end to see that. We're really grateful."
