The shell-shocked owner of a missing tortoise, named Fred, has revealed her worry after the pet reptile was apparently stolen from her back garden.
Carol Jacobs, of Kenilworth Close, in Duston, says her family’s tortoise, who has lived happily in her garden for the last 40 years, went missing within hours of her going on holiday to Cyprus earlier this month.
She said she had asked a neighbour to pop in and feed Fred while was away.
However, when the neighbour came round the next day the tortoise, who is still only middle aged, had vanished. Mrs Jacobs added: “We went on holiday on the Friday morning and we had arranged for the next door neighbour to come round and feed him, feed the fish, water the plants and bring the mail in.
“He said he came round the next morning and there was no sign of him, so he had disappeared more or less on the night we had gone.
“It was only when we came home that my neighbour came round and said ‘I’m really sorry but Fred has disappeared’.
“He looked everywhere and we did the same.”
She added: “He has never disappeared in 40 years so I don’t think he was going to start now.
“After all these years it is hard and I am worried people won’t look after him in the way he is used to.
“I am just worried something will happen to him. I don’t want him hurt.”
Mrs Jacobs says she bought Fred, whose favourite food is runner beans, from the old The Poodle Shop, on the corner of Sheep Street and Market Square, more than four decades ago.
She said: “We’ve had him for 40 years. He is quite a personality in his own way.
“He belonged to my kids and he would follow my husband everywhere. If he was in the garage he follows him there and if he went into the greenhouse he would follow him in there.
“If I was outside he would come and sit on my foot. He is a good size and he has a good pattern on him.”
Police say the thieves struck some time on Friday, June 7, and are believed to have climbed a side fence of the house to get to Fred in the garden.