Snappy the turtle was out for a stroll when he landed a dress shirt and a free ride to the local pond.

The 50-pound snapping turtle was crossing Bathurst St., near Elgin Mills Rd. W., in Richmond Hill around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, when Samantha Butler scooped him up, put him in her trunk and gave him the shirt off her back — a pink-and-white striped Joe Fresh dress shirt, to be exact.

Butler, a former veterinary technician, wrapped the reptile in the shirt and said she had just one thought beyond that: “Get him to water and get him to safety.” However, her husband didn’t hear her frantic knock, so she went next door to Craig Streicher and his son Sam, 12.

“She just said, ‘I need your help.’ We went to look, and there was a giant turtle sitting in her trunk,” said Streicher.

Sam said the turtle had “huge, dagger-like claws” and looked ready to attack. “It was trying to bite us.”

They grabbed a tarp and drove to a pond around the corner from their residential street, where they lowered it into the water.

Although their backyards face a patch of forest where coyotes, bats and deer are a regular sight, they were shocked that Snappy, who Streicher said was about 16 by 20 inches, had made it to Bathurst St.

“You don’t expect to see a turtle that’s this big running around in suburbia,” Streicher said.

Wildlife experts say Richmond Hill has turtles because there are wetlands and ravines in the area.

“If there’s a water source within a couple kilometres, you’ve probably got snapping turtles,” said Julia Pietrus, of the Toronto Wildlife Centre.

Bob Johnson, curator of reptiles and amphibians at the Toronto Zoo, says snapping turtles are “all throughout the city.”

Turtle sightings increase in June, because that’s when they’re scouting out a place to lay their eggs. By late May, notices warning York Region motorists to be careful about the endangered species are common on blog posts and community news sites.

Johnson says that while snapping turtles do bite, they aren’t more dangerous to handle than a raccoon. “All wild animals will bite you when they’re frightened. I’d be much more afraid of a chipmunk’s bite than a snapping turtle’s bite, but nobody’s afraid of chipmunks.”

Snapping turtles have more exposed flesh than other turtle species, which means they have to go to greater lengths to protect themselves.

“It can’t do what turtles do and tuck its legs and head in and pretend the world isn’t there.”

Johnson says Butler and the Streichers did the right thing, but that rescue-minded people should never take a turtle far from where they find it. Turtles have an internal GPS system, but only a tiny map. If you take them out of that area, they won’t know where to lay their eggs.

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The Toronto Zoo’s Adopt-a-Pond program has a video showing how to use a shovel to slide a turtle to safety.

More from the Star:Peterborough’s Kawartha Turtle Trauma Centre is the only rescue centre in the province dedicated to caring for injured native-species turtles.

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