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Missing 115-year-old tortoise Diablo returned to New Mexico retirement home

A desert tortoise (not Diablo) finds relief from the sun under a bush in Utah, April 18, 2001.
A desert tortoise (not Diablo) finds relief from the sun under a bush in Utah, April 18, 2001. AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac, File

This was no high-speed chase.

Diablo, a venerable 115-year-old desert tortoise, was returned to his home in a retirement community (for humans) in New Mexico on Friday, after going missing for a week, the Albuquerque Journal reports.

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The geriatric reptile had somehow found himself in the possession of some local kids, who sold him to a family in a nearby park. The family returned the shell-shocked tortoise to Manzano del Sol Village, after they saw a news report on his disappearance.

READ MORE: Malaysia seizes 330 smuggled endangered tortoises

Millie Tjeltweed, Diablo’s owner, said her “knees went weak” when she was reunited with her beloved pet.

Diablo’s companion, a 91-year-old female tortoise named Delilah, didn’t comment.

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