A schoolboy whose tortoise vanished seven months ago has been reunited with her - after she had a long 'power nap' inside an 11,000-volt electricity substation.
Harvey Dean-Evans, age 9, was left gutted when his beloved pet called Mary escaped from the family home in Wigan in August last year.
Parents Jodie and Ryan helped in a frantic search for Mary -who would usually only hibernate for two to three months - and when they were unable to find her they gave up hope and assumed she had gone forever.
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“It’s fair to say nobody in the family thought we’d ever see Mary again, given the weather and the time missing, we just thought there’s no chance," Jodie said. "Mary is used to being outside. During the summer, we regularly let her out in a small pen and she’s quite well-known on the estate.
“But that evening in August, she somehow got out of the garden and despite searching all over, there were just no signs of her and we thought she’d been taken.”
However last week, a maintenance worker at Electricity North West, Ben Baxendale, found a tortoise whilst clearing litter from the grounds of an 11,000 volt electricity substation that powers the local area in Norley.
“At first, I thought it was some sort of toy on the floor then I saw the tortoise move and retract its head into its shell" Ben said.
“It was certainly a strange one and something I’ve never dealt with before, I put the tortoise in a bucket and thought I’d knock on a few doors but knew if it wasn’t anybody’s we’d have to find it a home for the weekend."
Ben started knocking on the doors of houses just metres from the substation and the first person he spoke to was Harvey's grandmother who instantly identified the tortoise as missing Mary.
And once they heard Harvey and the rest of the family rushed round to see her. “There was all sorts of emotions when we saw Mary, it was such a heart-warming moment to see the smile on Harvey’s face" said Jodie, who also has pet turtles and terrapins.
“He’s really into his animals and loves everything about nature, he was devastated when Mary had gone missing but seeing his reaction when she was found made a few of us cry.
“I honestly can’t thank Ben and Electricity North West enough, they really did make Harvey’s day.”
Ben said: "“We always make it clear that no one should ever enter our substations – they have ‘danger of death’ signs on for a reason – but this is the first time I’ve seen a trespassing tortoise! I’m just delighted we could return her safely to where she belongs.”
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