Cape Coral man caught on camera tossing, kicking turtles

Cape Coral man was caught on camera kicking and tossing turtles through the grass. The man pushed them into another person’s lawn where she stepped in to save the turtles.

Catherine Christman ran out of her house on Diplomat Parkway West and Chiquita Boulevard North Tuesday night and caught her neighbor kicking turtles.

“I said, ‘this is against the law to hurt wildlife like this,'” Christman said.

Moments before, you can see him tossing the turtle across the street in surveillance video.

“I turned the turtles over and their shells are cracked,” Christman said. “They’re bleeding, and I didn’t know what to do. And I thought, these guys need help bad.”

Christman said she took the turtles to a 24/7 vet immediately.

“They took them in right away,” Christman said. “They said they’re in distress.”

The turtles were transferred to the Clinic for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife on Sanibel. CROW says one of the turtles, the Florida red bellied cooter will recover. But the other, a red eared slider, had to be euthanized because they are not legally allowed to treat and release an invasive species.

“Well, I want to cry,” Christman said.

WINK News reached out to the man in the video and asked him why he attacked the turtles. But, he didn’t answer.

As for if this man will be arrested or not, Cape Coral Police Department said they have reviewed the video and can’t arrest him.

“If we witness it happen, we can make an arrest. That’s not a problem,” said Phillip Mullen, spokesperson of CCPD. “If we don’t witness it happen, even with a preponderance of evidence, we have to package it up and send it to the State Attorney’s Office. ”

Christman said she did everything she could by bringing it to law enforcement’s attention.

“I just turned it over to Florida law,” Christmas said. “I hope they do something about it. There’s nothing I can do other than I did everything I could. I filed a police report. I took the animals to the vet.”