Tortoise Reunited With Owner Thanks To Social Media

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- A missing tortoise was reunited with its owner Wednesday thanks in part to the power of social media.

Mary Schul woke up at her Hollywood home Tuesday to find her 80-pound African Spurred Tortoise named "Zulu" was gone.

She said the pet, which she's had for 18 years, managed to escape from his enclosure.

"When he gets his mind going and he wants to leave, he just goes. And he got out of his cage again," Schul explained.

As Mary searched for Zulu, Shelley Daley was dropping her child off at the babysitter's house along Buchanan Street in Hollywood.

That's when she spotted something strange on the sidewalk.

"I thought it was an ornament which I knew was kind of out-of-place," she said. "When I looked at it, it looked at us, and I was like 'no, it's real'. I was like, 'what we going to do with it?'"

So Shelly took the tortoise to her home in Miramar, and called police to figure out what to do next.

Miramar Police suggested using social media, and posted a photo of Officer Edgar Gallardo alongside the animal.

An hour later, Mary was notified by a Facebook friend that her precious Zulu had been found, safe.

"I've been doing this job over twenty years and this a pretty unique call," Ofc. Gallardo said. "I don't think I've ever, (I've had) missing kids, all that stuff, but missing tortoise? My goal was to try to find the owner."

And that owner is very glad he did.

"So happy, I started crying," Schul said. "You know, it's part of the family. We don't want to get rid of him. They can be a pain, but he's cool, he's really a cool animal."

Zulu managed to travel about a half a mile from his home before Daley found him.

She said she would have kept him had the owner not come forward, but she was glad she worked with police to track the woman down.

As for Schul, she plans to tag Zulu with her name and phone number in case he manages another escape.