Pictures of Stolen Tortoises

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N2TORTS

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Hang in there buddy! ....and honest it sounds like teenagers did the job~

JD~
 

JoesMum

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I cannot imagine anything worse :( I wish you success in your search.

Joe is microchipped and has been for years. It was a very simple procedure and the chip is very small.
 

Jacqui

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How is your wife holding up? I can't imagine in her condition that this stress is helping much.
 

Neal

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DeanS said:
Are your torts visible from a perimeter wall? I'm wondering if it's someone in the neighborhood...maybe someone was casing your place and is planning a return visit! They had to know you were gone...no?

We have a 6.5ft solid brick wall around are back yard. We know the neighbors behind us and next to us, they would be the only ones that could look into our back yard. We have a carport, not a garage which is where they broke into...it's possible they could have been watching us for awhile, but with both our cars gone, it would have been a likely bet that no one was home for any random person.

Momof4 said:
How could we help you? I wonder if these scums are bragging on utube about their new finds. where are you located? Or maybe at a swatmeet or garage sale.

I know a lot of people here check all the popular reptile classified sites. Really all we hope is that enough eyes will see the pictures posted here, and be able to identify an ad they might see. I thought about youtube, I was going to search around there today, that's a good idea.

We have a lot of garage sales in are area on weekends...I'll be making the rounds for sure.

supremelysteve said:
Do you have any local fleamarkets?

Not really, at least none where anyone would sell reptiles. There are quite a few people that sell turtles and tortoises from the beds of their trucks on the outskirts of the valley...I think I might cruise around this weekend.
 

Tortoise

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Neal said:
DeanS said:
Are your torts visible from a perimeter wall? I'm wondering if it's someone in the neighborhood...maybe someone was casing your place and is planning a return visit! They had to know you were gone...no?

We have a 6.5ft solid brick wall around are back yard. We know the neighbors behind us and next to us, they would be the only ones that could look into our back yard. We have a carport, not a garage which is where they broke into...it's possible they could have been watching us for awhile, but with both our cars gone, it would have been a likely bet that no one was home for any random person.

Neal
can you get any story etc aired on the radio in your area?
I don't think you can over-do the exposure for this really.

My dad was a DJ in the UK and I know a few of the stations would do things like this to help out.Also they would be curious too as its not a regular kind of story (like a stolen cat, dog etc)
When I lost a tortoise the local RCMP officers were happy to send out the canine unit but we had too many scent trails to confuse them here. I think because they never had anyone ask for such a reason it made them more open to helping us.(sad in a way but if it works.....)

I was shocked they took me seriously as I imagined them all laughing about that crazy lady with missing tortoise but I was very wrong!!

Trying to think of as many ways we can help you out here - posters all over the place with rewards etc??
 

Neal

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Jacqui said:
How is your wife holding up? I can't imagine in her condition that this stress is helping much.

Not very well. If it were just me, I wouldn't have lost any sleep over this...but with my 2 year old and one on the way, it hasn't been good for my wife...she has not been happy with the house we're renting, and this really pushed her over the edge...we were lucky to find this place where the land lord was cool with having our tortoises there. I hope we can find another place that would accommodate our hobby.

Tortoise said:
can you get any story etc aired on the radio in your area?
I don't think you can over-do the exposure for this really.

Trying to think of as many ways we can help you out here - posters all over the place with rewards etc??

I agree that I can't over-do any exposure about this...didn't even think of the radio thing...what's the worse they could tell me, no? Good idea.

I like the posters idea as well, there's a good chance it was someone local.
 

grogansilver

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:tort: Hay im truly sorry for your loss!
I post on ebay classifieds they have some of the kind of tortoises your missing on there you might want to check that out and im not to sure but i think they may be from your area! "hay its worth a look, what better place to sell an animal of that sourse for kids! "Ebay" :tort:
 

Neal

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I'm really banking on someone bringing them in to one of the reptile shops here. There are about 5 reptile shops in the phoenix area, and they are all within a 10 mile radius of our house. Unless they sell them on the side of the road, or sell them to friends, where else could they go besides online?

As far as overdoing things...I was thinking about posting some info on craigslist, but then I though that whoever took them, might see that I'm being very aggressive and that would discourage them from trying to sell them...which could then end up pretty bad...you know what I mean?

I'd like your thoughts on how far I should actually take this. I really feel it's best to get the word out as many ways as I can, but if my only real hope of getting them back is this guy trying to sell them off, I don't want to scare him away in that sense, since it opens up the possibility that I might get them back...any thoughts?
 

StudentoftheReptile

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I sent you a PM about some herp radio shows that may help. I also posted a thread over on the Bush League Breeders Club as well. The more eyes and ears on the watch, the better!
 

Yvonne G

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I think it was kids. The only way you're going to have a chance to get them back is try to let the mothers know their kid my have an illegal tortoise. "Johnny didn't want it anymore and he gave it to me." But if mom hears on the radio or in the newspaper that some tortoises have been stolen, she might think twice about Johnny's new pet.
 

Neal

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emysemys said:
I think it was kids. The only way you're going to have a chance to get them back is try to let the mothers know their kid my have an illegal tortoise. "Johnny didn't want it anymore and he gave it to me." But if mom hears on the radio or in the newspaper that some tortoises have been stolen, she might think twice about Johnny's new pet.

I was thinking so too, the shoe prints left on the door they kicked in couldn't have been more than size 10. But, the door was deadbolted and the force of the kick tore a huge piece of the inner drywall off, so there was a lot of force behind that kick. I think posters in the neighborhood will be a good idea, I'll look into newspaper ads.
 

pdrobber

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Neal said:
we were lucky to find this place where the land lord was cool with having our tortoises there.





Have you spoken to the landlord about it? Maybe someone with keys would "break in" just because if they had used keys and not broken in it would narrow down the potential suspects...or maybe the landlord has told others that you have the tortoises...not to point a finger too quickly, just a possibility.
 

Laura

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did this happen during the day? and no one saw or heard anything? did they take anything else?
I would feel so violated.. i hope your wife does ok...
if they were druggies.. they will try to sell them everywhere. and not give much thought to it.. stupid people..
 

Yvonne G

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Its so hard to keep your hobby a secret. I have a guy come once a month to get rid of roaches and spiders. He's a nice guy and he adopted a sulcata from me years ago. Yesterday I got a call from someone I don't know wanting to come see the tortoise rescue. We set up an appointment and when I gave him my address, he said, "Oh, I already got it from Dave." Dave being my spider guy. So you just never know who might give you up.
 

Neal

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Yeah I called our property manager and he was there before the police got there. We had all of the keys, re-keyed by someone that we know and trust when we moved in, and my wife and I have the only set of keys. Again, I really don't think they broke in just for the tortoises, I think they saw them as they were going through the rooms and picked up a couple that looked cool. Like I said, if they had any idea what we had in there...they would have gone for the more valuable stuff.

This happened between 10:30am and 1pm, so in broad daylight. They took our PS3 and Wii, so it seems it was someone looking for stuff they could sell quickly and buy drugs.

Yvonne you're right. It's very difficult to keep the hobby secret, we even have more exposure since we are a business. It's very easy to find out where anyone lives.
 

Carol S

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I am so sorry for your loss.

I am sure it is probably a teenager or a group of teenagers that live close by. Do you have any teenagers at home or know any teenagers in your neighbohood, as teenagers like to brag about their wrongdoings and there is a possibility that if you have teenagers they will overhear about this at school or from other teenagers in the neighborhood. When my girls were teenagers they overheard at school about a group of teenagers that were going around on Saturday nights and looking for unlocked cars and stealing things out of them.

I hope you get your tortoises back.

Carol :(
 

Neal

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Good idea about focusing on the teenagers. I'm involved with the youth through my church, I'll ask around if any of them have heard of anything. This happened mid day during a school day, so it's not highly probably, but anything is possible and worth some effort.
 
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