SAN ANTONIO -- A tortoise that went missing from its home in Buda back in August has been returned home.

• Was helped across the road after escaping
• Man who returned her made owners suspicious

Rachel Lienemann, Crescentia the sulcata tortoise’s owner, said how she got her back is a bizarre story.

“It was just the craziest situation,” Lienemann said.

The saga first began the last week in August when Lienemann noticed Crescentia was not in the backyard where she lives. She initially thought someone had stolen the tortoise to sell it. Turns out, she had actually escaped.

After speaking to neighbors, she found out Crescentia had been helped across the road after escaping. Then, another passerby who saw her called several agencies for advice on what to do with the tortoise near the roadway.

“He stopped to pick her up because he had never seen a turtle like this. He said he called Texas Parks and Wildlife, he called the local law enforcement, and he called San Marcos Regional Animal Shelter and they all told him that it was a wild tortoise and to release it. Which I was honestly pretty shocked about, there's really no native species of this size.”

Crescentia was then dropped off 10 miles south of Lienemann’s house in Buda to a brushy area under IH-35 around the Blanco River exit.

“We knocked on doors all around where she was released, and nobody had seen her. And then the people who did report sightings of her, nobody stopped,” Lienemann said. “They said that they saw her and they left and I was just kind of getting frustrated. I was like why, if you saw this on the side of the road, would you not kind of stop and question it?”

After a few weeks of searching, posting signs, knocking on doors, even enlisting the help of search dogs and drones, Lienemann had given up hope of ever getting Crescentia back.

“It just started feeling hopeless. Since then, I just accepted the fact like you know we've had some really hard freezes, and they really shouldn't be in weather that's under 60 degrees, unprotected. So, in my head I'm like okay between the flash floods the area's had, and then the freezes, she's either dead or somebody picked her up and took her home,” Lienemann said. “And I just kind of thought that that was like the end of the chapter, I wasn't going to know more, I wasn't going to have any more closure about it, which was tough but then it was like, I can't do anything more than what I'm already doing.”

Then last week, she got a call from a man who said he picked up a tortoise near that same overpass three weeks ago.

“And I was I was kind of skeptical because since I posted that she's been missing, I've had so many false alarms. I've just have every little water turtle been sent to me. You know, and I'm thankful for that but it's just, after so many false alarms it just kind of got to the point where I'm like, it's just not going to be her. There's no way,” Lienemann said.

After the man described what the tortoise looked like, Lienemann began to have hope. She told the man to meet her and her husband at the area where she was released. Now, here’s where Lienemann said the story got a little bizarre.

“I really think that he was not telling the truth that he had her for only three weeks, I think he had her for longer. Just because we've had freezes before then that she would have not done well,” Lienemann said.

When she and her husband were talking with the man in person, they didn’t see Crescentia, even though he had told her over the phone the tortoise was in the bed of the truck.

“He goes on to tell me that the night before we had met him that he was trying to sell her for $150 and the buyer never showed up,” Lienemann said. “And so in my mind at that point I was like okay, I need to get her now. Like she needs to go in my car if she's even here, I didn't know.”

And just to add another crazy twist to this reunion story--

“He goes on to say that his boss was telling him like all these good recipes and that they taste good. And I was just like, standing there shocked. I didn't say anything. I mean, at this point, I just wanted her back but I couldn't believe the words he was telling me. I was shocked,” Lienemann said.

Last but not least, before handing the tortoise over, the man questioned her about reward money.

“He like stops before he opens the door and he's like, 'is the reward still good?' I say yeah, it's still good. And then he opens it and [Crescentia's] like sitting on his floorboard with a bunch of hay on the ground,” Lienemann said.

After the exchange, Lienemann said she felt grimy about the whole situation but doesn’t want this crazy story to overshadow the fact that Crescentia was returned safe and sound.

“The location that he said he found her, we had giant neon signs that you could see from the freeway if you were looking. And he had to have known. There's no way. I honestly believe he only returned her for the reward, which, that's what they're there for but it's still kind of scary. I have no idea what he was feeding her, I don't know if he was giving her water. I have no idea what's been happening to her the last four months. So we're just going to get her back on track and go from there and never let her go,” Lienemann said.

The good news is, Crescentia’s checkup at the vet went well and she’s now microchipped. Lienemann has also written her number on Crescentia’s shell to make sure this never happens again.

“It was just a wild ride and honestly I never thought that this day would ever come. I never thought we were going to get her back and it's insane. Regardless of whatever happened, I'm just glad that she's back. It's a miracle,” Lienemann said.