The culprit behind a tortoise-napping from a Queens environmental center turned himself in Tuesday, police said.
Shawn Waters, a 36-year-old Queens resident, was charged with grand larceny and criminal possession of stolen property after surrendering to police at the 111th Precinct in Bayside.
Millennium, the African spurred tortoise at the center of the caper, was taken from the Alley Pond Environmental Center in Douglaston on July 17.
Just over a week later, Millennium returned home safe and sound after police received a tip that someone was trying to trade the 17-year-old reptile for a musk turtle. The person who alerted authorities was a Connecticut man who was to be Millennium’s new owner, officials said.
The tortoise was located at the Fairfield-Metro North station in Fairfield, Connecticut, about 60 miles north of New York City, and soon returned to Alley Pond.
Staffers at the facility told Metro last week that Millennium was hungry, but unharmed during the escapade.
According to the New York Daily News, Waters has 26 prior arrests and police are still investigating whether he was behind Millennium being taken from Alley Pond or was just involved in the ill-fated tortoise trade.
