The Quiet Thief: How a Tortoise Moved Nine Roosters Overnight

The Quiet Thief: How a Tortoise Moved Nine Roosters Overnight A row of seven cream-and-rust ceramic roosters sat neatly on a mudbank, each facing upstream and wiped clean - fourteen inches apart, no footprints for four-tenths of a mile - and yet they had come from a locked house where nine identical roosters vanished overnight. How did those matched ornaments travel from an inaccessible kitchen shelf to a riverbank with no trail and no witness? In this episode, we tell the sequence of events recorded by the woman who owned the roosters, the fisherman who found them, and the deputy who logged them into evidence, tracing times, locations, and small repeating details that built the mystery. Which pattern in Nancy’s notes - the precise morning times, the missing roosters, and the lone household pet - might explain the impossible transfer? Person: Nancy Green Pet: Pico, sulcata tortoise, 11 years old, 61 pounds Date: Rooster moves recorded June 29-July 8, 2019; river discovery July 9, 2019 Location: Packer's Elbow, Aldean River; nearest road 0.4 miles through dense hackberry brush Authority: Deputy Leonard Watts logged the figurines into evidence - Nancy moved into 4 Palliser Drive on June 21, 2019 and found the first rooster moved on June 29, 2019. - Nancy’s collection consisted of nine ceramic roosters, approximately 6 inches tall with bases 3-4.25 inches. - On July 5 at 5:50 a.m. Nancy discovered four roosters missing and called her brother Dennis at 5:53 a.m. - By the night of July 8 the kitchen shelf was empty; on July 9 Gregory Fitzgerald found seven roosters on the Aldean River bank. - The roosters on the mudbank were spaced about 14 inches apart, facing upstream, and showed clean glaze with no nearby footprints. To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com. © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved. This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: [email protected].