HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — When Javier Montemayor walked into work at Cedar Creek Café Wednesday afternoon, unraveling a turtle kidnapping caper wasn’t part of his plans.
But somewhere between tending the bar and managing the restaurant’s Instagram page, Montemayor found himself in the middle of a reptile recovery mission.
“I was in shock. I thought it was a joke, ‘I’m going to eat your turtles.'” Montemayor said of the semi-regular customer who he said came in, ordered a beer, and started talking about making turtle soup with the turtles that live in Turkey Gulley, the drainage creek that runs through the café’s property. “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I love to make turtle soup. How that’s so good.'”
As the man was leaving, an employee in the parking lot saw him carry at least one snapping turtle to his truck. Montemayor watched the security footage and realized the man had brought fishing lines and shrimp to the café’s bridge and baited the turtles.
Because the man was a regular, Montemayor was able to find him on Instagram. In posts that were later deleted, the man boasted about his turtle heist, remarking that he was going to make turtle soup. So Montemayor messaged him.
In direct messages reviewed by ABC13, Montemayor demanded that the turtles be returned. However, the man was defiant. In various replies, he pointed out Turkey Gulley was public property, told the café to call the game warden, and at one point wrote, “Buy me 20 (pounds) of turtle meat. I’ll come drop them off right now.”
Eventually, he had a change of heart.
“We got some fellow Cedar Creek lovers on social media, and they kind of called him out and said, ‘Hey, you need to bring our turtles back,'” Montemayor said.
So, at about 10 p.m. on Wednesday night, the man returned with the turtles in a giant Yeti cooler and hauled them back to the bridge.
In a video shared by the restaurant, the man is heard grumbling that he thought he had turtle soup, but Cedar Creek’s owner had other plans.
ABC13 reached out to the man on Thursday. Over the phone, he said the turtles had been returned and that it was all a joke. He said he never intended to eat the turtles.
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says the state has specific regulations when it comes to the harvesting of turtles. It released the following statement on the legality of the actions:
In order to harvest common snapping turtles, an individual must have a valid hunting license and landowner consent to hunt on the property. Common snapping turtles are considered a nongame species. There are no closed seasons and they may be hunted by any lawful means and methods on private property (with landowner consent). Public hunting lands may have additional restrictions.
It is considered unlawful to take or possess any freshwater turtles from the wild for commercial purposes or to possess more than six (6) individuals of any species of freshwater turtle from the wild. These regulations can be found in the Texas Outdoor Annual (PDF page number 14).
Montemayor and the owner of Cedar Creek say they are relieved the turtles are back since they predate the restaurant and have survived all of Houston’s weather woes. Kids and families who frequent the restaurant on weekends can continue to feed them.
As for preventing tales of turtle fishing in the future, the restaurant is considering putting up a “turtle cam” along Turkey Gulley. They also plan to add signs and maybe print up some shirts for staff to encourage customer awareness that they do not want anyone taking the turtles for any reason.
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