June 30 (UPI) — An officer in Huntingdonshire, England, engaged in “a contender for the world’s slowest police foot-chase” when she spotted an escaped tortoise trying to cross a road.
Policing Huntingdonshire said on social media that Police Constable Charlie Brett was driving on the B1040, near Ramsey, about 8:30 a.m. when she spotted the shelled jaywalker.
“I spotted something moving in the opposite carriageway and after a few takes, I saw a tortoise trying to cross,” Brett said in the post. “In sheer panic that he would get crushed, I blocked the road, ran and grabbed him, and put him in the front footwell riding shotgun. The driver behind me was laughing!”
Police said the capture of the tortoise, named Tom, was “a contender for the world’s slowest police foot-chase.”
Brett consulted with local residents and discovered Tom had been missing for about three weeks and his owner had put up posters in the area.
“His grateful owner thanked Charlie and had spent hours and hours walking in the area to find him,” police wrote.