Precious cargo abducted in North Seattle car theft

It was a car theft, but with some very unusual passengers left inside.

Jan and Jack Wirth had stopped at a 7-Eleven store in North Seattle about 6:35 p.m. on Wednesday, leaving the key in the ignition of their van, when someone made off with the vehicle.

Inside the van at the time of the theft were Tiko, a 62-pound African desert tortoise, Lady Bird, a white turkey with black-tipped feathers, and four of Lady Bird's poults, or baby turkeys.

"We had taken them down to show a young boy down in Seattle, and we had them all in the car," said Jack Wirth. The boy's nanny is a friend of the Wirths.

For years, Jan Wirth has provided a haven to about 50 animals in her South Everett home, including chickens, turkeys and ducks, as well as an iguana and tortoise, three cats and a dog.

After visiting the boy, the Wirths stopped at a 7-Eleven at 13417 Roosevelt Way N.

While inside the store, Jack Wirth said, "I turned around to see what Jan was buying, and I saw [the thief] in the van, driving off."

Wirth said he ran out the door, and the thief sped down the street.

The Wirths said the thief may have been captured on the store's camera.

The Wirths' vehicle is a dark blue 1988 Dodge Caravan with wood-style paneling on the side and a peeling roof and hood. Its license plate is 020MAN. The suspect is described as 5 foot 7 and about 140 to 150 pounds. He was last seen wearing a long red shirt.

The animals can live for some days without food, but "we only had a small container of water" in the vehicle, said Jack Wirth. "Tiko is a desert tortoise; he could go on for days without water. But the others — they won't even last a day."

"I feel devastated. It's like losing a child," Jan Wirth said. "You put your life into these animals, and they're like your babies. They're going to suffer in the heat and the car — they have no food."

The tortoise has a brass-plate ID on his back, which says "Jan Whalen" (Wirth's name before she married Jack Wirth) and has her phone number on it.

The Wirths say they are waiting by the phone for any information, and have begun to search for the car and animals themselves.

Wirth is offering a $500 reward for any information that leads to the safe return of the animals, "no questions asked," she said.

Her phone number is 425-355-6362.

Diane Wright: 425-745-7815 or dwright@seattletimes.com