TIMES-LEADER (Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania) 19 July 07 Family feeling 'shell' shock (Lisa Sokolowski)
Marquita Peck ran into the A Plus store on Academy Street in South Wilkes-Barre, and when she came out, her beloved family member Beauty had disappeared.
Beauty has a broken right arm and was traveling with Flopsy, her light and dark green stuffed turtle. Her favorite television show is "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," and she apparently gets upset when she doesn't see the cartoon on Saturday mornings.
She was taken about 4:30 p.m. on the last Saturday in June. Peck's mother, Angela Ward, filed a police report, hung fliers around town and called the local television stations.
The TV stations didn't take the story.
So she went searching on foot and by car, knocking on neighborhood doors. She went to the A Plus, where the security tape was reviewed. The video is of the side of the store, not the front, so the "kidnapping" wasn't caught on tape.
Ward called the SPCA, anything to get her beloved Beauty back.
Yes, the SPCA, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The missing family member is a turtle.
Beauty, a nearly 20-year-old red-striped water turtle, was turtle-napped, if you will.
"My daughter is devastated," Ward said. "We cried and cried in the beginning. Now we just have faith. We're Christians. We would bless her with the oil to keep her safe and protected. We're just going on faith that she's OK and not abused."
Beauty has been in the family for 17 years, ever since Peck, now 23, was 6. Peck originally wanted an iguana, but because of the germs it carries, Ward said no. A week later, Peck asked for a turtle.
It was $30 at Petland Discounts in Brooklyn, N.Y., and was the size of your hand. It's now 1 foot around and takes baths in the tub.
"I wonder how much it would go for on the black market," Angela's husband, Fred Ward, said, jokingly.
It's that joking that got him in trouble. Angela and Peck have been distraught over Beauty, and Fred has been trying to lighten the mood. When he saw Peck getting worse, he stopped his jokes, and Angela stopped snapping at him (pun, not entirely accidental).
So what exactly happened on Academy Street that day?
Peck took her bike to the store and was carrying Beauty and her pillow in a beige kennel and realized she had forgotten her money. She went home, then back to the store, all the while traveling with her pet, whom she, in a post on PetFinder.com, called her "best friend."
She left Beauty on the steps outside the store because she didn't know if pets were allowed inside. When she returned, Beauty was gone.
"She blames herself really badly," Ward said. "I say, 'You can't help it. You were sick.' "
Peck suffers from hypoglycemia, a condition that could cause confusion and forgetfulness.
"She said, 'Mommy, I wasn't thinking.' Come to think of it, now we know why," Ward said. "She has sugar shock, a step away from diabetes. She has been forgetting stuff, and we were trying to figure out what was wrong with her for years."
Now that that mystery is solved, focus is back on the disappearance of Beauty.
A reward is being offered for any information that helps return Beauty to her South Wilkes-Barre home.
"We don't have much money," Ward said. "But we're willing to pay to get her back. We owe on bills, I mean, we pay our bills, but we're offering a reward."
To Help: If you have any info on the whereabouts of Beauty, a red-striped water turtle with red markings on both sides of her head who has been missing since June, call Angela at 570-825-0603 or 646-546-1426.
Family feeling 'shell' shock

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