Rare tortoises, book and comics

Perusing this morning’s local paper as reader, not as employee or promoter, this piece, which seems to defy partisan classification, caught interest. A couple whose doing things together routine appears to be moving stolen goods through EBay, including rare tortoises theft didn’t realize were microchipped, rare comics and books stolen from local treasure Haslam’s Book Store. The wife appears to be a corrections officer


Two endangered Galapagos tortoises, rare books and comic books went missing from locations across Florida. On Tuesday, a couple was arrested after police determined they sold some of the items on eBay and kept other valuables — including the rare reptiles — at a St. Petersburg home.

Joshua McCarty-Thomas, 46, was taken into custody after detectives serving a search warrant at his home, located at 2435 10th St. S, discovered one of the missing tortoises dead in his freezer and the other alive in his yard, according to a Tuesday evening news release from the St. Petersburg Police Department. McCarty-Thomas’ spouse, Dashae McCarty-Thomas, 29, was arrested as a co-defendant in the case, according to criminal report affidavits.

According to a state of Florida database updated weekly, Dashae McCarty-Thomas is employed by the Department of Corrections as a correctional officer. She was hired in 2022, according to the database.

The juvenile Galapagos tortoises had microchips, and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials scanned the chips and confirmed they were the same tortoises that had been stolen from the St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park in St. Augustine on Nov. 30, police said.






Rare stolen tortoises found; St. Pete couple jailed
Rare stolen tortoises found; St. Pete couple jailed - Tampa Bay Times

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True Florida man.


Years before Joshua McCarty-Thomas became ensnared in a bizarre case involving two stolen Galapagos tortoises and an assortment of pilfered rare books, the St. Petersburg man sat in an Ohio federal courtroom to answer for a similarly odd series of thefts.

The case centered on the taking of two rare books dating to the 1700s from the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont, Ohio. One of the books was resold multiple times to unwitting buyers after it was stolen and eventually found its way into the personal collection of Texas billionaire Harlan Crow for $45,000, according to court records.

Man ensnared in tortoise, rare book caper has a tangled history
Man ensnared in tortoise, rare book caper has a tangled history - Tampa Bay Times

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