Herman the tortoise is found

Herman, a 30-pound Sulcata Dessert tortoise, the family pet for the Blasses of Lawrence was found yesterday. Herman had gotten loose from the family’s yard before 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.

Rochelle Blass received a phone call from Edwin Papia, after a client in Lawrence showed Papia one of Blass’s fliers she had posted around the area. Papia, a Baldwin resident, has a Baldwin-based upholstery business, 5 Arit Designs. “Edwin was telling the customer about the tortoise he found and that he left him at the Lawrence Golf Club because he didn’t know what else to do with him,” Blass said. “I thought he was playing a joke on me,” Papia said, about the customer showing him the flier.

After seeing the flier, Papia called Blass and she called the club, where Joe Ciaravolo, the club’s golf superintendent, said he found the tortoise and placed him in the large sand trap. She and her daughter “flew” down to the club and reclaimed Herman.

“Somebody had dropped it off and it was walking in the road,” said Ciaravolo, who added that “it was strange” to have such a large animal by the golf course. In the past there have been dogs, but never a tortoise. Herman was making a home for himself burrowing into the trap, Ciaravolo said, but he wouldn’t eat the bagel Ciaravolo offered. “[Rochelle] told me you have to feed him fruits and vegetables,” he said.

Driving on Broadway in Lawrence, Papia and his cousin Biron Papia saw the tortoise crawling across the street. “I made a U-turn and went back, there was a lot of people there, but they were afraid to pick it up because it’s so big,” Edwin said.

Biron picked Herman up and placed him in their vehicle. “I wanted to bring him close to water, thinking he was brought up by the storm,” Edwin said.

The cousins dropped the tortoise off by the golf club. It is not the first time Edwin has been a Good Samaritan to wildlife, or he found a hard-shelled animal. “No, no, I like animals,” said, Papia, who thinks everyone who saw the tortoise wanted to help, but they were a little afraid due to the animal’s size. “I once found a pigeon with a broken wing and took care of it until it could fly again and out in the Hamptons I found a turtle that some landscapers had cracked its shell and I took it to an animal hospital.”

Herman is now locked up in the yard, Blass said. Before his disappearance the family had decided to place him with an animal shelter and he will be sent to a sanctuary in West Palm Beach, Fla. But the Blass family will not be forgetting what Papia did for them. “Edwin is my hero,” said Blass, who noted the Papia refused her, offer of a reward for finding Herman.