ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — A rare tortoise said to have been stolen by a man living in St. Petersburg was returned to a zoo in northern Florida on Wednesday where he previously lived.
Two young Galapagos tortoises were taken from the zoo in November 2022. One of them did not survive while staying at the St. Pete home, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park said in a Facebook post.
According to the St. Petersburg Police Department, the carcass of the second animal was found in a freezer.
"Thank you to all the law enforcement agents across Florida that helped track down the individual and recovered our juvenile Galapagos Tortoise," the zoo wrote in the post.
In a video posted by the zoo, officials say the surviving tortoise is a male that hatched at the zoo in 2017. He was welcomed with food and a sign that said, "We missed you!"
A zoo official told those in attendance at the event he will need their help in finding a name for the tortoise.
The tortoise that survived will have a full check-up conducted by veterinarians at the zoo and will be quarantined for at least 90 days. There will also be a full investigation by the zoo into how the other tortoise died.
Joshua McCarty-Thomas, 46, was charged with two commercial burglaries after he was accused of stealing the two rare tortoises.
Authorities served a search warrant Tuesday for the 46-year-old at his home on 10th Street South in St. Peterburg and found the animals, the police department said in a news release.
One of the tortoises was reportedly found alive in the yard and the other carcass was in the freezer. A 10 Tampa Bay crew at the scene found additional tortoises in the yard Tuesday evening.
Law enforcement says McCarty-Thomas stole the endangered Galapagos tortoises from the St. Augustine-based zoo back on Nov. 30, 2022, which was confirmed by The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission when they tracked the tortoises' chips.
The younger tortoises are each worth about $10,000 and can weigh up to 600 pounds when fully grown and live up to 150 years, police say.