Two suspects – a current and former student – were arrested for stealing nearly a dozen animals from a zoo at a college in Florida, police said.
Austin Bruno, a student at Santa Fe College in Gainesville, surrendered to campus police early Thursday, hours after an arrest warrant was issued on two counts of burglary and two counts of grand theft in connection to the missing animals – including two red foot tortoises, a skink and a squirrel monkey – from the school’s Teaching Zoo, school officials said.
Seven of the animals were recovered, but four more remained missing as of Thursday afternoon.
“This subject was an active participant in entering our zoo when it was closed and stealing our zoo animals,” Santa Fe Police Department Chief Ed Book said in a statement. “But our investigation is not over.”
Bruno refused to tell police where to find the remaining missing animals, Book said, leaving two gopher tortoises and two Florida box turtles – all of which were swiped between May 23 or May 24 – still unaccounted for as of Thursday. The other animals were believed to be stolen on May 30.
Zoo officials have said the gopher tortoises are a protected species, making it a third-degree felony to harm or tamper with them. Both animals have multiple metal plates after being rescued by the zoo after surviving a dog attack and being struck by a car, and officials said they require medical attention.
“Students and staff are devastated,” the zoo’s curator, Kathy Russell, said in a statement on May 31. “These animals have been with us for years. They are ambassadors for the guys in the wild. We hope that someone is taking care of them, but we know that we can provide the best care for them at the zoo. Please bring them back.”
Sedrick T. Price, a former student at the college, was arrested Tuesday after a tip led police to the Crossing at Santa Fe apartment complex, where the seven animals were found, including six from the second burglary and one box turtle from the original theft.
Jay Anderson, a Santa Fe College spokesman, said campus investigators have not indicated a motive for the alleged thefts at the college, which has about 17,000 full-time students.
The value of the 11 animals taken was between $10,000 and $20,000, according to the Gainesville Sun.
One of the recovered animals — an 11-year-old squirrel monkey named Mani — has seemingly been accepted back by her relatives, as two other squirrel monkeys in her cage did not treat her as an outsider upon her return, the zoo’s director told the newspaper.
The other recovered animals appear to “look good” after initial examinations, zoo director Jonathan Mito told the Gainesville Sun.
Anyone with information about the location of the missing animals is asked to call Santa Fe College police at (352) 395-5519.