Just wanted to pass this information along about John Richard's turtles being stolen:

The following turtles were stolen from John Richards' Loggerhead Acres near Springfield, Missouri on Saturday night/Sunday morning August 14th 2004:

3450 (approx.) alligator snapper eggs

4 Argentine sidenecks 12 - 15” Phrynops hillari

5 Mexican giant musk 8 - 10” Staurotypus triporcatus

41 Northern diamondback terrapins, 35 @ 8” and 6 @ 3” malactemys terrapene

10 Cagles map turtles 2.5” and one male @ 3.5” Graptemys caglei

14 Pink bellied sidenecks 6 - 8” Emydura subglobosa

4 Vietnamesese temple turtle @ 7 - 8” 2 @ 3” CITES 11

14 Rio Grande Cooters 13 @ 1.75” 1 @ 7” male Pseudemys conecinn gorzugi

6 Indonesian sidenecks @ 11” Elseya brandehorsti

800 (approx.) redear slider hatchlings Pseudemys scripta elegans

2 Barbour’s map turtles @ 2.5 inches Graptemys barbouri

11 Japanese Reeve’s turtles 6 - 8” 2 @ 1.5” Chinemys reevesi

2 European pond turtles @ 7” Emys orbicularis

8 Japanese pond turtles @ 8” Mauremys japonica

16 Spotted turtles @ 4” Clemmys guttata

3 Chinese yellow pond turtles @ 5 - 6” Mauremys mutica

1 Painted river terrapin @ 11” Callagur borneoensis

2 alligator snappers @ 2.5” macroclemys temniinckii, 1 @ 9”

3 alligator snappers 40 to 70 lbs. 17 - 19”

1 7" leucistic alligator snapper, 1 @ 4” and 9 @ 2.5”

5 common snapper hatchlings g 1.25” Chelydra serpentina serpentina

7 redear sliders @ 3” Pseudemys scripta elegans

1 pastel redear @ 5” “ “ “

1 Cafifornia Kingsnake @ 3’

1 alligator snapper shell @ 24” length

1 alligator snapper skull @ 8”

6 Geoffrey's sidenecks @ 7 - 12 "

* Please keep an eye out for these animals. Some will not be easy to move without causing some interest. Drop John a note at macrojon@ipa.net or call him him at 1-417-736-9114 if you have any information. As you can see, this is a huge theft and represents a significant portion of John's current and future financial livelihood. Let's solve this one for John (one of the hardest working and most honest guys out there) and for the turtle community.

Thank you -

Russ Gurley