You are reading

East Elmhurst Man Responsible for Missing Tortoise Sentenced to Six Months at Rikers

iStock

Jan. 19, 2018 By Christian Murray

An East Elmhurst man was sentenced to six months jail after pleading guilty to possessing a tortoise that was stolen from an environmental center in Queens last year.

Shawn Waters, 37, of 103rd Street, pleaded guilty last month following the disappearance of a 17-year-old tortoise named Millenium (sic) that was taken from the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Douglaston on July 17, according to the Queens District Attorney’s office.

The rare reptile was found in Connecticut a week later.

“Millenium the tortoise’s summer escapade that included crossing state lines has drawn to a close with today’s sentencing of the defendant,” Queens DA Richard A. Brown said in a statement Thursday. “The rare reptile is safely ensconced in his habitat and now the defendant, who admitted to possessing the stolen tortoise, will be confined to Rikers Island for the next six months.”

The saga began when an employee at Alley Pond realized the 95-pound African spurred tortoise had disappeared and that there was a hole in the rear fence near the tortoise’s area.

Waters was caught after detectives traced him via a Craigslist ad.

A man from Stamford, Connecticut posted an ad on the site looking to sell a turtle. He later received a phone call from Waters who wanted to trade it for an African spurred tortoise for it.

The two met up on July 23 and the Connecticut man traded his turtle and $300 for Millenium.

The following day, the Connecticut man called the NYPD after learning that a African spurred tortoise had been stolen and a detective retrieved the reptile. An employee from the environmental center then gave a positive I.D. of the tortoise.

The phone call to the Connecticut man was linked to Waters.

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Met Council leader warns of ‘catastrophe’ for low-income families in Queens due to lack of pandemic-era federal food aid

Mar. 28, 2023 By Bill Parry

As an accomplished legislator, law professor and media personality with broad experience in government and not-for-profit organizations, Met Council CEO and executive director David Greenfield is well aware of the power of words. With Passover arriving on Wednesday, April 5, and with federal pandemic food assistance no longer available to low-income families in Queens, the leader of the nation’s largest Jewish charity organization warned of a coming “catastrophe” and called for the city to step up to provide $13 million in emergency funding for pantries to help New Yorkers facing food insecurity and elevated costs of living in the borough.

Pair of Queens community organizations will activate public spaces to celebrate local cultures

Two Queens community organizations are among an inaugural cohort of five groups citywide that will lead new projects to celebrate local cultures and histories in public spaces under a new initiative called The Local Center in a partnership between Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD).

At a time when New York is grappling with an uneven pandemic recovery and as displacement looms large for communities and neighborhoods across the five boroughs, this new endeavor will convene interdisciplinary teams to transform and activate the shared spaces where cultural traditions flourish — and importantly, center the community visions and leadership that is too often left out of the process.