Months after a man in Florida was accused of kidnapping a set of rare tortoises from a zoo, police have discovered a treasure trove of stolen items — some buried in his yard.
In November 2022, two Galapagos tortoises were reported stolen from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park, according to a news release from the St. Petersburg Police Department in May.
The endangered and rare tortoises were valued at $10,000 each and could reach sizes of 600 pounds if able to live their full 150 year lives, police said.
It wasn’t until six months later that a search warrant served on a house in St. Petersburg led to the discovery of the kidnapped reptiles, one living in the yard and another found dead in a freezer, police said.
Microchips in the tortoises confirmed they were the same duo stolen from St. Augustine, according to the release.
But tortoises weren’t the only stolen items discovered in the home.
Police said there were thousands of dollars worth of stolen rare books and valuable comic books in the home.
The homeowner, a 46-year-old man, was charged with commercial burglaries on top of the tortoise theft, according to the St. Petersburg Police Department.
He was charged with theft of books from two St. Petersburg locations and theft of comic books from a store in Ocala, police said.
Now, police know that was only the beginning.
“It’s been a lot of connecting the dots,” St. Petersburg Police public information officer Yolanda Fernandez told WTVT. “This one has been extremely unusual since the very beginning. I mean we found two endangered stolen tortoises.”
In a November search of the man’s home, police found more rare items and collectibles buried in his yard, police said in a Nov. 15 news release.
“Just this last week, they found loot buried in his backyard and located a storage unit (he) filled with stolen items,” police said. “The detectives recovered collectors’ items including rare books, signed instruments, and jewelry, worth thousands of dollars.”
Investigators found jewelry wrapped in plastic shopping bags and then buried in the ground, according to photos shared by police, and items as odd as a medieval knight’s helmet and the bust of a pharaoh.
“When I say that these detectives haven’t stopped digging, I mean that literally as well as figuratively. I mean this has been an enormous amount of work in this case,” Fernandez told WTVT. “We’re not experts in things like rare books and comic books, so we’ve had to bring experts in to help us sort through this and determine what was stolen, where it was stolen from, and now we’re in the process of trying to get some of those items back to the rightful owners.”
The man is currently in custody from his May arrest in the Pinellas County Jail on 10 counts ranging from burglary to grand theft, according to jail records.
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Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
