Cashew the tortoise is found safe and sound. Was it theft or was it a tortoise showing off its hidden talents? Investigators are investigating! 

(CBS/AP) DUBUQUE, Iowa – Iowa investigators want to know who took an 18-pound African leopard tortoise from an exhibit at a Dubuque museum. The animal was subsequently found alive in an elevator in the building, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium.

KWWL-TV reports authorities believe the tortoise named Cashew was stolen, but that the thief then changed his stripes – or, perhaps, spots – and returned the animal.

The museum says a visitor found the tortoise on the elevator floor Thursday, apparently in good health, two days after Cashew was determined to be missing from an exhibit with a 4-foot glass wall.

Museum officials suspected she was taken as a prank or to sell.

They’re reviewing surveillance video to try to figure out exactly what happened, and “who dunnit.”

I’m guessing this has several endings.. like the movie Clue. 

UPDATE (since this was in my Queue)! Lastest Article indicates the work of human error and tortoise awesomeness (by just being a tortoise)

The National Mississippi River Museum announced last week that Cashew had been stolen. Instead, the animal had gotten wedged behind a museum wall. Embarrassed about losing track of a tortoise, a staff member popped Cashew into the elevator to make it appear she’d been returned by a thief.

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