Village pub released CCTV after its pet TURTLE Squirt is ‘stolen from tank by two little girls’
While two young girls allegedly stole a turtle from a bar’s tank, the ‘extremely sad’ moments were captured on the facility’s security camera.
The ‘squirting’ turtle was seen being lifted from its enclosure at the Three Tuns pub in Ashwell, Hertfordshire, on Friday evening, before the youngsters ran with the animal to their mother’s white BMW.
As soon as the bosses saw the reptile disappearing from the tank, they immediately notified the police and scanned their own security cameras to find the culprit.
They also searched nearby resources and surrounding areas in case Squirt was left outside rather than taken to the nursery.
A reward has since been offered for Squirt’s safe return due to concerns for the turtle’s welfare, which is said to require special care such as controlled water temperature.
“Removing it from its habitat could seriously affect its health and even result in its death if it has not been properly cared for since the day it was taken,” the owners said.
In a painful Facebook post, the pub shared that CCTV showed ‘two children repeatedly entering and exiting the room for approximately seven minutes’.
‘At around 6.41pm they are seen removing a turtle from the heated tank.
While two young girls allegedly stole a turtle from a bar’s tank, the ‘extremely sad’ moments were captured on the facility’s security camera.
The ‘Squirt’ turtle was seen being taken out of its enclosure at the Three Tuns pub in Ashwell, Hertfordshire, on Friday evening.
‘The footage then shows them trying to hide the turtle before leaving the veranda, walking down the garden, through the garden gate, over our car park and towards the watering hole.’
The bar hoped that by sharing the girls’ pictures, locals could alert the girls’ parents that Squirt had been kidnapped and send him back home.
But in a later update,Hi explained that the mother walked into the bar around 6pm, ordered a Coke but dropped the glass during service and then walked outside towards the watering hole.
As the glass breaks and staff help clear it, two children wearing matching green-and-white striped overalls then repeatedly go to Squirt’s tank to ‘attempt to retrieve the turtle but become frightened when customers continue to walk past’.
The younger girl allegedly acts as a lookout, while the older child removes the turtle from its tank and the younger child moves forward, “acting as a curtain” as he moves toward the springs.
The bar initially believed that the mother of the two girls was unaware that the boys had allegedly taken Squirt and smuggled her into the car.
But CCTV footage from the bar’s exterior shows the children holding the turtle walking alongside their mother as they made their way towards the building from the springs about 10 minutes later.
Bar wrote: ‘The footage shows the adult woman remaining in the corner of the building while a child walks towards the entrance of the spring.
The bar hoped that by sharing the girls’ pictures, locals could alert the girls’ parents that Squirt had been kidnapped and send him back home.
‘The adult woman and the second child are seen returning to the vehicle at around 18:49, after which the group leaves the area.’
Three Tuns said that they were notified of the address of a suspicious family and the General Manager came to their home on Monday.
The bar claims the mother initially said they had not visited the Three Tuns on that date, but allegedly “changed her story” after being made aware of the CCTV and allegedly responded by saying the children had found a turtle at the spring but it had been left there.
“He changed his story again when it became known that CCTV footage covering the relevant period was available,” they wrote on Facebook.
The woman was said to have offered to replace the turtle, but when the ‘discussion became unproductive’ the police soon joined the incident and the General Manager left soon after.
“We hope the turtle will return before our annual Tuns festival this weekend, as we have been looking forward to showing him off,” Three Tuns added.
Hertfordshire Constabulary was contacted for comment but police reportedly said: ‘Inquiries are ongoing and anyone with information is asked to report via 101 or online quoting crime reference 41/57985/26.’
