ROSEVILLE, Mich. – Great Lakes Reptile in Roseville was watching two of the Crowe family’s pet tortoises, Chip and Dale.
However, Chip went missing and a 9-year-old boy is wondering what happened to him.
“They meant a lot to me,” said Drew Collett.
Drew has had the tortoises for two years since they were hatchlings, and Chip is the one with all of the personality.
“I was really attached to the one that was missing... It’s just been really depressed for the last few days,” he said.
Drew’s mother Connie Crowe said she received a wild explanation from an employee of the store.
“They blamed it on one of the managers, who I guess relapsed on drugs. And she thinks that he sold him for drug money, basically. But it’s possible somebody stole him or that he got out. They have no idea what happened to him. He’s just gone,” she said.
But the owner said, “Well, that’s not necessarily true. We don’t really know what happened.”
He said it’s possible that the tortoise was stolen and offered to replace it.
“He might just be a tortoise to some people, but to us, he was a pet and it’s so hard just not knowing what happened to them,” Crowe said.
“Just the fact that they could lose a living animal. It’s not like animals just (vanish) into thin air,” Drew said.
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