Lindenwood Park residents are eagerly waiting to see what’s inside a mysterious box wrapped in festive red packaging in front of a house at Clifton and Fyler avenues.

Before the box arrived, the spot in the front yard of the home in the 6200 block of Fyler Avenue used to belong to a beloved neighborhood wooden turtle carved from a sycamore tree. The turtle had received pet names from many locals, such as Franklin and the Fyler Turtle.

In 2010, the Post-Dispatch wrote about the previous owners, who hired a chain saw artist to sculpt the reptile out of a dead tree stump. The family regularly dressed the turtle up for holidays, and it became a local attraction.

When the turtle started to decay from an ant infestation, it had to be removed. John and Heather May, who have lived in the house for nearly four years and inherited the turtle, said they were heartbroken to see the sculpture go. They wondered what they could put in its place.