Vt. farmer finds stolen 116-pound African tortoise

[April 24, 2010]  ALBANY, Vt. (AP) -- A 116-pound African tortoise has returned home after being stolen from its enclosure on a Vermont farm.

The 20-year-old tortoise vanished April 11 from Peter Lowry's barn in Albany. It was located after a call Thursday from a woman who said she knew where the tortoise was.

Lowry says the woman led him to a Craftsbury mobile home where the tortoise was being kept by a man who'd been asked by a teenage boy to watch it. The man didn't know the tortoise was stolen.

Lowry says he and police know who took the animal. But no one has been charged.

The farmer plans to install surveillance cameras in the barn where the tortoise's pen is located.

Lowry, who also keeps macaws, cockatoos and snakes, calls the tortoise's saga "a very odd tale with a very happy ending."

[Associated Press]

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