London - As he had reached the grand old age of 90, you’d forgive Sarah Joiner for thinking her pet tortoise Zuma would be slowing down and taking it easy.
What she couldn’t have counted on is the lively nonagenerian hitching a ride on a bin lorry in a garden waste bag and getting lost among ten tons of rubbish.
In a desperate bid to find her beloved tortoise, the dedicated pet owner spent hours trawling through 1,000 bin bags.
Such was the bond between her and Zuma that Joiner donned protective clothing and began wading through waste in the hunt for Zuma alongside plant staff.
To aid the needle-in-a-haystack job, staff used a thermal imaging camera to root out the errant tortoise among the mountain of bin bags.
After the search, lasting two-and-a-half hours, Joiner was finally reunited with her pet of 40 years – safe and sound and perched on a bed of lettuce.
Tortoise saved by Westminster City council after sneaking into rubbish bag https://t.co/ASa8ExwPOB pic.twitter.com/ZSe8tyxxVI
— ENGLISH MAGAZINE (@english_iq) August 10, 2016
Joiner noticed Zuma was missing on Friday, and realising he may have crawled into a rubbish bag, frantically called Westminster City Council. Officials snapped into action, using satellite tracking technology to locate the refuse truck which was harbouring the stowaway pet.
In what can only have been a tense phone call, Joiner was told that the lorry had been located – just before it reached an incinerator.
The vehicle, which was carrying ten tons of rubbish, was pulled over to one side – so Joiner, who suffers from multiple sclerosis, could trawl through the bin bags at the South East London Combined Heat and Power facility.
Speaking after the drama, Joiner said: ‘Thank you is never going to be enough. It was amazing teamwork; there was no nonsense about it – just enormous goodwill in finding him.’
Though a Hollywood adaptation of Zuma’s odyssey may yet be a pipedream, Lynn Davis, of refuse company Veolia, said that he had survived ‘against the odds’. She added: ‘This was certainly a different way to spend a Friday afternoon and I’m just relieved we were successful.’
Daily Mail