Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

First, there was Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael. Now, there’s Kevin.

I’m unsure about the mutant part, but it certainly seems Kevin, the Lecompton teenaged turtle, is a ninja, as no one has been able to find the 75-pound, 2-foot wide tortoise on the flat, rolling plains of Lecompton’s Tallgrass Parrot Sanctuary for the past three days.

https://www.facebook.com/tallgrassparrotsanctuary/photos/pcb.410044902528896/410044809195572/?type=3&theater

On Tuesday, 17-year-old Kevin the tortoise escaped after a burglar cut the chain lock on a gate at the Tallgrass Parrot Sanctuary in Lecompton, sanctuary owner and Kevin’s caretaker Kail Marie said.

Marie left the sanctuary at noon Tuesday, and when she returned around 4 p.m., she noticed someone had cut open their gate. The burglar was apparently after a lawnmower, Marie said, but failed at taking it, leaving it in the middle of the driveway. But though no one swiped the lawnmower, the sanctuary’s goats, chickens, pigs and the tortoise were missing.

The farm animals returned, Marie said, but Kevin did not. While’s it’s possible the tortoise is still on the run, Marie thinks it’s likely that someone driving past their place between County Road 200 and 300 along Highway 40 spotted him on the shoulder of the road and took him for a pet.

“They’re just tanks,” Marie said. “You’d have to be pretty strong to pick him up.”

https://www.facebook.com/tallgrassparrotsanctuary/photos/pcb.410044902528896/410044812528905/?type=3&theater

If he hasn’t been taken in, the cold-blooded animal will be all right in the wild for a while. But Marie fears for Wednesday, when the temperature is expected to drop, possibly to below-freezing temperatures.

Marie has had Topeka’s professional dog tracker Stephanie Avila bring her bloodhound to track Kevin’s scent, and he seems to be in the area. Later Friday, Marie said, someone would bring a drone to the sanctuary to search for Kevin from an aerial view.

If you know of someone who randomly just got a pet tortoise, or have any other possible information on Kevin’s whereabouts, Marie asks that you contact her through the Tallgrass Parrot Sanctuary’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/tallgrassparrotsanctuary.

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Thursday, 1:40 a.m.

A Lawrence police officer patrolling the 1300 block of Ohio spotted two groups of people “being aggressive and confrontational toward each other,” Lawrence Police Department spokeswoman Kim Murphree said.

Before the officer could intervene, a man in one of the groups “threw a punch,” Murphree said, and someone else tackled another man and took him to the ground.

The officer approached the group and ordered them to break it up and leave, but two of the men stayed, one (we’ll call him Bill) restraining another (we’ll call him George) who wouldn’t quit yelling and cursing at the other group of people leaving the scene.

The officer then went up to the two, and asked Bill to let go of George as the officer took George’s arm. But Bill defied the officer, instead trying to tug George away from the officer, even after he was told to stop.

Bill tried a couple more time to pull George away from the officer, but another officer arrived on scene to help. The first officer asked George for his ID, but it was no dice — George was allegedly intoxicated and denied having identification.

Eventually, the officers arrested George on suspicion of disorderly conduct after “he continued to be argumentative,” Murphree said. Upon arrest, the officer found George’s ID, plus a fake one.

The officer seized the fake ID and the man was then arrested on suspicion of an additional charge — possessing a fake driver’s license.
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Pinckney Elementary School, 810 West Sixth St., filed a police report Thursday after a staff member’s vehicle was allegedly stolen from the school’s parking lot, Lawrence Schools spokeswoman Julie Boyle said.

I haven’t heard any updates today on whether the vehicle has been found.

It’s surprisingly common for vehicles to be stolen in Lawrence. It seems like there’s at least one report of a stolen vehicle on the LPD’s call log every 48 hours. Keep an eye on yours, and always, ALWAYS, keep your doors locked.
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And now for our regular 911 call roundup. As always, I’ll remind you that this is a list of noteworthy calls I pulled from the Lawrence Police Department call log. Not all calls yielded police reports, and many may have gone unsubstantiated. The list is meant to give you an idea of what kinds of calls police are responding to within a given time period.

This list is a collection of calls that police responded to between Thursday and Friday mornings:

Violence

• Disturbance (verbal or physical arguments): 5

• Domestic disturbance: 1

Traffic

• Noninjury accident: 16

• Injury accident: 2

Medical

• Medical: 5

• Suicide threat: 1

• Suicide attempt: 1

Miscellaneous

• Harassment: 2

• Suspicious activity: 7

• Suspicious activity: 1

• Indecent exposure: 1

• Prowler: 1

• Pursuit: 1

• Noise or Nuisance: 7

• Vicious animal: 2

• Sound of gunshots: 1

• Fireworks: 2

Welfare

• Adult welfare check: 7

• Child welfare check: 4

Substance concerns

• Drug activity: 2

• Alcohol poisoning: 1

• Bar check: 1

Property crimes

• Forgery: 1

• Burglary: 1

• Auto burglary: 1

• Stolen vehicle: 2

• Theft: 7

• Trespassing: 6

• Shoplifting: 1