Security staffers rescue turtle
Published: July 12, 2005
Two Luzerne County security officers didn’t need a firearm but a box to remove a turtle found outside the courthouse early Monday morning.
“We were reporting for duty a little before 6:30 and noticed the turtle walking across the yard outside the south entrance,” said Officer Patty Benzi, of Wilkes-Barre Township. “We didn’t know if it was a snapping turtle but we got a box and it crawled right in.”
Officer Bruce Puchalski, of Hanover Township, said the turtle was walking in the direction of the Susquehanna River but faced a major hurdle.
Puchalski believed if the turtle kept walking on its own, it would have fallen off a 10-foot wall.
“Surely it would have fallen off the wall and probably would have died,” Puchalski said.
After the turtle was in the box, Puchalski carried it over the levee and down to the river’s edge where the four-legged creature was released.
“And we didn’t need to kill it,” Benzi said. “It was probably someone’s pet.”
Benzi referred to an incident in Exeter last week where a police officer shot and killed a snapping turtle.
Benzi estimated the turtle to be more than foot long and it never retreated into its shell.
“It didn’t look threatening,” Benzi said.
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