A tortoise who has greeted customers at a Colorado pet shop for more than a decade is back in his enclosure, a day after he was snatched from outside the store and driven away.
Howard, a large African spurred tortoise and a fixture at Scales ‘N Tails on North Academy Boulevard in Colorado Springs since 2011, was taken from his outdoor pen on the evening of Wednesday, June 17. According to the shop, a man removed the tortoise from the enclosure, put him in a vehicle and drove off. Local broadcaster KRDO reported that the owner, Robert Bohner, believed the suspect had made a purchase moments earlier and seized his chance while a member of staff went to fetch the order.
The disappearance struck a nerve. Howard is well known to regulars, who often stop to pet him while he takes in the sun, and the shop’s appeal for help was shared thousands of times online. “We ultimately just want Howard to come home,” Bohner told KRDO before the tortoise was found. “Please, if you got him, take care of him, and bring him right back to us.”
The response was swift. The Colorado Springs Police Department said detectives moved quickly after the theft was reported, using information and security footage supplied by the shop to identify a suspect. Officers located 37-year-old Justin Edwards at a local hotel the following day and took him into custody.
Howard, however, was not with him. Through further inquiries and interviews, detectives traced the tortoise to a separate location and returned him safely to the store. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported that he was recovered from an apartment in the city and reunited with staff on Thursday evening, less than 24 hours after he had gone missing. Police said Edwards had been booked into the El Paso County Criminal Justice Center on felony charges.
For the shop, the relief was plain. “Howard is HOME!!!” it wrote in a social media post, thanking both the public and the police. “This tortoise doesn’t just belong to us, he belongs to the entire community who shared and relentlessly took time out of your days to like and share and communicate with each other and CSPD to bring him home.”
The police department echoed the sentiment, framing the recovery as a model of co-operation. “This case is a great example of what can happen when the community partners with law enforcement,” it said. “Information shared by the pet store, witnesses, and members of the public through social media helped detectives develop the leads needed to bring Howard home safely.”
