Tortoise on the run for ‘several days’ reunited with owner, Kansas cops say

UPDATE: A previous version of this story, citing a police Facebook post, reported that the tortoise was missing for three years. But police later released a statement clarifying that the animal escaped for “several days,” and not three years as they originally said.

This story has been updated throughout.

A “huge” pet tortoise that escaped its owner for “several days” was reunited with its owner, Kansas police say.

A concerned resident spotted the large reptile crossing a road near baseball fields and “stopped to make sure it didn’t get squished,” Kansas Highway Patrol said in a news release on Facebook.

A couple of troopers went to help out and found the owner had put an identification tag on the pet, police said.

Troopers used the tag to reunite the tortoise with its owner — who lived about 1.5 miles away, Kansas Highway Patrol spokesman Ben Gardner wrote on Twitter.

Gardner initially called the animal a turtle but later found out it’s a tortoise.

“The owner was amazed and delighted to find out that his (tortoise) had been found and was still alive,” police said in the news release.

Gardner said it’s apparently common for tortoises to escape if they’re living in a backyard.

This story was originally published September 6, 2019 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Tortoise on the run for ‘several days’ reunited with owner, Kansas cops say."