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Prosecutors in Changning District charged two men from Jiangsu Province with larceny over the weekend, alleging the pair stole three turtles from the Shanghai Zoo in April.
The two men, who officials would only identify by the surnames Wang and Zhao, are charged with stealing two Malaysian giant turtles and one Asian giant turtle.
After zoo officials noticed that four turtles were missing in April, they alerted the police and installed surveillance cameras alongside pools in the Reptile and Aquarium House.
On May 13, security guards monitoring the cameras noticed three men, all in their twenties, acting suspiciously on a bridge along the turtles' pool at about 4pm.
One of them quickly climbed down to the pool, dragged an Asian giant turtle out of the water and stuffed it into a large backpack.
Security guards nabbed the trio as they stepped out of the aquarium house. They then confessed that they had successfully stolen a Malaysian giant turtle in April.
When asked about the three other missing turtles, the three local men said they had once seen two migrants acting suspiciously in the aquarium house.
One of the men, surnamed Chen, said he later saw the pair selling two Malaysian turtles at a local flower and bird market on Jiangyin Road. He confessed to buying the two turtles for 260 yuan (US$31).
The trio then sold those two turtles, plus the one they had stolen themselves, to a storekeeper in the market for 600 yuan.
Police allege the two men who sold Chen the turtles were Wang and Zhao, who were both arrested in the city's suburbs.
Zhao allegedly told police he sold the third missing turtle to a local seafood dealer for 100 yuan.
The four giant reptiles were returned to the zoo in June, but two Malaysian turtles died one month later.
A zoo official surnamed Pan said the turtles are national protected species. The stolen reptiles were each aged between 50 and 60 years old and weigh nearly 20 kilograms. They can grow to a weight of about 80 kilograms each and live for more than 1,000 years.
Zoo officials estimate the turtles are each worth nearly 2,000 yuan on the underground market.
The three local men were released on bail by local police.
(Shanghai Daily October 11, 2004)
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