TORTOISES are known for their slow speeds —but one Altham pet had a great escape.

Shelley, the six-year-old Russian Horsfield, escaped from the garden at her Epping Avenue home.

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Graham Leyland, Shelley’s owner, said: “It was my fault. We put her out in the garden when the weather’s nice and she wanders about on the grass. I hadn’t put the little chicken wire fence down. For a tortoise she’s quite quick. I’d turned my back and she was gone.”

He said his children Erin, eight, and Seth, five, helped him to look for the missing pet.

“Me and the kids were looking for her, but she’d already been picked up by the postman who took her to Mearley vets about half a mile away. He had found her on the street about 100 metres from the house on Wittlewood Drive.

“Our next door neighbour had asked us what we were looking for when she saw us searching in and around the garden.

“The next morning we had a knock off the door from her. That morning, at 4am when she was on Facebook because she couldn’t sleep, she spotted the post from the vets.

Shelley travelled 0.2miles during her adventure. She was found with a 2cm crack on the back of the shell where it’s believed she has been clipped by a car. At the moment it’s being held together by plasters.

“She’s eating ok, but I think she’s feeling a little sorry for herself. She’s on medication but she’s had a great escape,” said Graham Shelley could live to the age of around 50. She measures around 15cm and is fully grown.

Graham said: “She lives in a box with a heat lamp, but she does go out quite often and likes to wander round the house.

“The kids love her.”