Diablo the tortoise goes missing again
Witness suggests juvenile males may have taken senior community pet
Whatever happened to respecting your elders?
Diablo, the 115-year-old tortoise, is once again experiencing the indignity of being missing in action from his courtyard home at Manzano del Sol.
Only this time, there is evidence he was spirited away.
Errol Murray, a resident of the senior living community, reported that he was relaxing in the courtyard late Wednesday afternoon and saw Diablo in one of his favorite spots in the garden, near a gate that leads to a walled-in walking track. A short time later, Murray heard juvenile male voices coming from the walking track area saying, “Hurry up, hurry up!” and apparently not directed at the tortoise.
By the time he maneuvered his wheelchair to the track, the
people were gone and so was Diablo. Residents and staff spent all day Thursday unsuccessfully searching the grounds for Diablo, and a missing tortoise report was filed with the Albuquerque Police Department.
“I don’t see how he could have gotten out; somebody took him,” said resident Millie Tjeltweed, 91, who brought Diablo and his mate, 90-ish-year-old Delilah, to Manzano del Sol seven years ago when she moved into the community.
Diablo had been missing for a week recently when a family who lives near Manzano del Sol and had seen a story about the missing tortoise reported they had purchased him for $5 from some kids in a local park.
“I was delighted we had just got him back, and with all the publicity I didn’t think anybody would dare take him again. Now I don’t know what to think,” said a distraught Tjeltweed on Friday. “I’m almost sick about it. I didn’t feel good all day yesterday. I brought Delilah into my kitchen last night, I was so afraid they’d come back for her.”
Tjeltweed, who acquired Diablo and Delilah from a neighbor 35 years ago, is not alone in her outrage and anguish. “Everybody over here is so upset. That’s all they’re talking about.”
Diablo should be easy to pick out. Not only is he a hefty 10 pounds, but whoever had him last time painted three of the squares on his shell bright red, she said.