Officers were dispatched to the parking lot at 15 Rye St. around 4:30 p.m., after an employee called to report that the turtle was blocking a motorist from pulling out of a parking space. When police arrived, the wayward snapping turtle, which has a shell more than a foot long, had moved and positioned itself beneath a motorcycle.
At first, officers Josh McCain and Bob Lukacz tried to coax the turtle out from beneath the motorcycle by attempting to have it bite onto a stick. The officers considered picking up the turtle, but decided against it due to the lack of safety gloves.
Eventually, after the owner of the motorcycle moved his bike, the officers were able to trap the turtle in a postal service box, pushing the reptile into the box with a stick. McCain and Lukacz then removed the turtle from the parking lot and placed it in the nearby woods.
(Seacoastonline - June 1, 2012)
