Sebring woman reunited with lost tortoise

Associated Press

CLEVELAND

A wayward tortoise’s surprising trek around Ohio has ended happily for its owner.

Otis the California desert tortoise managed to push open a sliding glass door and escape from Kathie Heisinger’s home in Sebring on May 30.

Heisinger created fliers offering a $200 reward that was quickly matched by the Sebring Volunteer Fire Department, prompting her to make the reward $500 total. Village residents soon joined Heisinger in her search around Sebring.

“There are a lot of good people in the world,” Heisinger said.

Otis quickly became a minor celebrity. Facebook posts and shares, newspaper and television stories and the fliers led to more than 100 phone calls from people who believed they had spotted him.

After reading a newspaper story about Otis, Tyren O’Steen called Heisinger, who was reunited with her beloved pet of 25 years. “I could tell the tortoise meant a lot to her,” O’Steen told The Alliance Review.