Our family is completely heartbroken right now, someone or someones broke into our yard last night and stole many of our beloved turtles and tortoises =( How heartless and cruel can people be to steal someones pets!
Heartbroken
- Thread starter cmosuna
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This is OUTRAGEOUS!!!! I would be seeing red!!....please start looking on CRAIGSLIST in your area, or checking with pet stores that might have recently acquired new tortoises!!!...Make a police report ASAP....AND this had to be an inside job, someone you know or someone they know had to know you had them, and they took them...a neighbor maybe or a friend of your neighbors....ppl just dont wander into ppls yard and take animals without knowing what they are getting........
jojodesca said:
We have done each of those things but as far as people knowing its hard to prevent, even when our neighbors were getting a tree trimmed the workers climbed up on our block wall and were calling people over to see our sulcatas and stuff. Gardeners have seen them, so sad you cant be trusting with a pet. We are going to install motion lighting today to help
About 5 years ago my friend lost about 5 grand worth of sulcatas in one night. Not cool! I'm so sorry! I'm sure many of us can relate.
That is very sad. 
Were any of them microchipped?
Were any of them microchipped?
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I am so so sorry for you. This is my husbands biggest fear. If you have any current photos or statistics on your missing animals, post them here and at all local exotic pet stores. Thieves likely take tortoises because they seem them as a way to make profit, and thus will try to sell them back to other tortoise enthusiasts or vendors. Hopefully if you can spread the word, when someone does see your pets up for sale they will be able to alert you. Again I am so sorry, humanity disappoints me greatly : (
I just searched through your old posts in effort to see your tortoises least I be able to recognize them anywhere and found a link to your Facebook page complete with a map and directions to your house. It's terrible that we live in world which forces us to be weary of eachother, but I might suggest removing that information ASAP, as any unscrupulous Internet user can pinpoint your home and target you for tortoise theft. It may not have been anyone you know. So so sad : (
I just searched through your old posts in effort to see your tortoises least I be able to recognize them anywhere and found a link to your Facebook page complete with a map and directions to your house. It's terrible that we live in world which forces us to be weary of eachother, but I might suggest removing that information ASAP, as any unscrupulous Internet user can pinpoint your home and target you for tortoise theft. It may not have been anyone you know. So so sad : (
The Facebook shows the general vicinity but not our address and we don't live on the street. More then likely it was kids that live in the apartments behind us. We have seen then standing on cars to look in. Once one person saw they all look. Our walls are also as high as the city will allow
Oh, Chad...that's just awful. I always worry about that too. I make sure all my turtles and tortoises are in their house at night with the door blocked, but in reality, that just makes it easier for a thief to find them and steal them, doesn't it. I guess the next step is doors that actually latch and lock. Right now its just a piece of plywood and a cinder block.
Get the word out at your local pet shops and veterinarian office, anywhere else you think might help.
Blast the internet too. Do you have pictures of them?
We had the same thing happen a few months back, I think the best thing you could do is get the word out as fast as you can.
Blast the internet too. Do you have pictures of them?
We had the same thing happen a few months back, I think the best thing you could do is get the word out as fast as you can.
Oh my gosh, how awful! People are cruel. I really hope you get them back
My worst nightmare!!!! I keep my gate locked all the time and grow bouganvilla around the front of the fences so no one can climb them. I don't even let the gardener in the back anymore - I'm that paranoid! How many did you lose? Please post pics for us so we can keep an eye for them.
That is so mean and cruel to both you and the tortoises. We had a pet store in our area that had two large sulcatas in the store. Someone broke the window and stole one of them. Fortunately (I think, they were in a very, I mean very small enclosure) they did get it back a few months later. Hopefully you will get yours back too. I am so sorry this happened
So sorry to hear about this, it's not the first time on this forum (is it Neal?!). Guess we are all going to have to install cameras so at least the thieves can be identified. Hard to understand the mind of someone that would do something like this. 8-(
What area was It in and what species? This could help some of us,
This is the only reason I do not want to make an outdoor enclosure
This is the only reason I do not want to make an outdoor enclosure
Thats really sad deffinately get the word out everywhere make sure to get the word out to all reptile forums and Fauna, things like this happen everyday not just to reptiles and other animals but also with carnivorous plant collections, other rare plants and even cactus collections. There are many cheap easy things one can do to set off noise and such to help deter unwated people away or so that if its in the middle of the night you will be able to hear them getting into your yard or enclosures, you can also set up trail cams around your yard and home that will snap pics every so many mins and if someone does snoop around or even get in atleast you will have the pics to help you ID them or catch them with the help of the police. Im glad we dont live near any big cities nor large towns and that we are in the middle of the woods, no one can see anything on my property unless your the DNR sneaking around or the spy plane that flys over head.. The main things visible on my property from the main road is my greenhouses and front of house but we sit a good amount back in off the road in the trees.
In an odd turn of events one of our beloved tortoises was just dropped back into our yard. And by dropped I mean thrown over the fence and fled before I saw them. She wasn't there 2 minutes earlier so I must have missed them by seconds. She is uninjured and back in her enclosure. To which I am currently adding motion lighting.
So it gets even crazier, turns out it was a bunch of 10 year old boys with obvious parental problems. It was a game to them they just started handing them out to people and then eventually threw several of them in the dumpster! We recovered most of them but are still missing about 2 or 3 Sliders. The sickening part was the mother who in Spanish tells another mother (in front of the police) that they are just stupid turtles and that's what kids do, its only because they are stupid white people. She then told us her son came home with them and she threw them in the garbage! WTH is wrong with people!
So it gets even crazier, turns out it was a bunch of 10 year old boys with obvious parental problems. It was a game to them they just started handing them out to people and then eventually threw several of them in the dumpster! We recovered most of them but are still missing about 2 or 3 Sliders. The sickening part was the mother who in Spanish tells another mother (in front of the police) that they are just stupid turtles and that's what kids do, its only because they are stupid white people. She then told us her son came home with them and she threw them in the garbage! WTH is wrong with people!
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Wow. How awful and how awesome. So happy to hear some of them are back home safely, hope the remaining sliders come home soon too!
OMG, was reading through the thread hoping, just hoping for a happy ending. You got some of them back, but not all of them. Who are these people who think they can just trespass and steal with no thought to the emotional roller coaster the owner is going through.
I am so sorry this happened to you. I think we all will take extra precautions to insure this doesn't happen to us. Thanks for sharing your story, as heart wrenching as it started out to be.
I am so sorry this happened to you. I think we all will take extra precautions to insure this doesn't happen to us. Thanks for sharing your story, as heart wrenching as it started out to be.
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