ALHAMBRA, Calif. — In this case, the officers could keep their speeding ticket citations in their pockets.
The Alhambra Police Department joked on its Facebook page that a 150-pound giant tortoise was captured Saturday afternoon after a brief pursuit on a street in the Los Angeles suburb.
''The tortoise did try to make a run for it, but our officers are pretty fast,'' the post said.
It took two officers to lift the hard-shelled creature in- to a patrol car.
They then took the reptile to the local police station before turning it over to animal control authorities.
Police said a local family was reunited with the reptile, named Clark, on Sunday.
The family was not identified.
Giant tortoises are indigenous to the Seychelles, Mascarenes, and Galapagos islands. They belong to a class of reptiles that first appeared about 350 million years ago.
No word yet on how far the tortoise had gone from home when it was caught.
A call to a police spokesman wasn't immediately returned.
The giant tortoises have some of the greatest longevities of any animals in the world, with many living for 100 years or more.