Turtle kidnapping at Cedar Creek Heights cafe solved by Instagram

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — When Javier Montemayor came to work at Cedar Creek Café on Wednesday afternoon, solving a turtle kidnapping wasn’t part of his plans.

But somewhere between working behind the bar and managing the restaurant’s Instagram page, Montemayor found himself in the middle of a reptile rescue mission.

“I was shocked. I thought it was a joke, ‘I’ll eat your turtles.'” Montemayor said of a semi-regular customer who he said came in, ordered a beer and started talking about making turtle soup with turtles that live in Turkey Gulley, a drainage creek that runs through the cafe’s grounds. “He said, ‘Yeah, I love making turtle soup. It’s so good.'”

As the man was leaving, a parking attendant saw him carrying at least one snapping turtle to his truck. Montemayor reviewed surveillance footage and realized the man had brought fishing lines and shrimp to the café bridge and set up bait for the turtles.

Since the man was a regular, Montemayor was able to find him on Instagram. In posts that were later deleted, the man bragged about his turtle attack, noting that he intended to make turtle soup. So Montemayor sent him a message.

In direct messages reviewed by ABC13, Montemayor demanded the turtles be returned. But the man was adamant. In various responses, he pointed out that Turkey Gulley was public property, told the cafe to call a game warden, and at one point wrote, “Buy me 20 (pounds) of turtle meat. I’ll come get it right away.”

He finally changed his mind.

“We found a group of Cedar Creek lovers on social media who reached out to him and said, ‘Hey, you have to bring our turtles back,’” Montemayor said.

So around 10pm on Wednesday night, the man returned with the turtles in a large Yeti cooler and dragged them back to the bridge.

In a video shared by the restaurant, the man can be heard complaining that he thought he had eaten turtle soup, but the Cedar Creek owner had other plans.

ABC13 reached out to the man on Thursday. He said over the phone that the turtles had been returned and that it was all a joke. He said he never intended to eat the turtles.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says the state has specific regulations regarding turtle harvesting. It released the following statement regarding the legality of the activity:

To hunt alligator turtles, a person must have a valid hunting license and landowner permission to hunt on the property. Alligator turtles are considered a non-game species. There are no closed seasons and they may be hunted by any legal means and methods on private property (with landowner permission). Public hunting lands may have additional restrictions.

It is illegal to take or possess any freshwater turtle from the wild for commercial purposes or to possess more than six (6) individuals of any species of freshwater turtle from the wild. These regulations can be found in the Texas Outdoor Annual (PDF page #14).

Montemayor and Cedar Creek’s owner say they’re glad the turtles are back because they’re older than the restaurant and have weathered Houston’s weather woes. Kids and families who visit the restaurant on weekends can still feed them.

As for preventing future turtle fishing stories, the restaurant is considering putting up a “turtle cam” along Turkey Gulley. They also plan to add signs and possibly print T-shirts for staff to encourage customers to make it known that they don’t want anyone fishing for turtles for any reason.

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