Student, 20, ties bright yellow BALLOON to her 'escapologist' tortoise

No getting away now, Houdini! Psychology student, 20, ties a bright yellow BALLOON to her three-year-old Russian tortoise Elmo so she can easily spot him after he repeatedly tried to escape

• Claudia Carter spent up to four hours at a time searching for ‘escapologist’ Elmo
• She would find him scaling the fence or burrowing in her garden in Sheffield 
• Student decided to tie ballon emblazoned with smiley face to pet using ribbon 

A ‘Houdini’ tortoise is now forced to wear a bright yellow balloon after repeatedly trying to escape from his exasperated owner’s garden. 

Once allowed out for a stroll, Elmo the Russian tortoise would disappear for hours on end, leaving his owner Claudia Carter, 20, frantically searching for the ‘speedy’ escapologist.

The psychology student from Sheffield, South Yorkshire, found herself cutting back hedges and digging among her flowerbeds whenever the he went missing, before finding him scaling a fence or digging under trees. 

Now she claims there’s ‘no way’ she could lose the three-year-old as the ‘cute’ balloon harness she created means he’s impossible to miss against the green plants.

A video of Elmo sporting the accessory on TikTok has attracted more than 82,000 views and more than 12,000 likes and comments from viewers.

The clip shows the shelled animal stuck in some chicken wire after attempting to clamber over it, while Claudia can be heard asking him: ‘Are you embarrassed? Made a stupid life choice?’ 

She is then seen creating the special harness, featuring a yellow balloon emblazoned with a smiley face attached to some ribbon. 

The ribbon is then tied around Elmo’s shell before he is seen potting around the garden with it attached. 

Speaking this week, Claudia said Elmo is ‘like Houdini trying to escape’, adding: ‘We’ve lost him for hours in the past. We’ve been searching, cutting down hedges and digging.

Once allowed out for a stroll, Elmo the Russian tortoise would disappear for hours on end, leaving his owner Claudia Carter (pictured together), 20, frantically searching for the ‘speedy’ escapologist

Busted: Elmo the tortoise is caught scaling a fence during one of his escape attempts

A video of Elmo sporting the accessory on social media (pictured) has attracted more than 82,000 views and more than 12,000 likes and comments from viewers

‘We had the idea to stick a balloon to him, we tied it around in a bow so he looked cute. The balloon makes sure he doesn’t get lost.

‘It makes us laugh because of how cute it is, it also puts it into perspective how little he is.’

Frustrated Claudia claims she was fed up of frantically searching for the ‘speedy’ pet for hours – so decided to grab some ribbon and helium to make the unique balloon harness.

She added: ‘Elmo usually lives indoors and has his own area but when it’s above 20 degrees he can go out in the garden. That’s when he tries to escape.

‘You can see throughout the clip that he’s gone to the bottom of the garden and he’s climbing on the rocks. He goes in there and digs down.

‘His breed digs down to sleep, we worry he’ll bury himself alive. If he gets out at night, we worry if it’s too cold or how he’ll eat.

‘We’ve got chicken wire in his area of the garden. The outside area is big but sometimes we put him in the garden so he can run around wherever he wants.

Frustrated Claudia claims she was fed up of frantically searching for the ‘speedy’ pet (pictured) for hours – so decided to grab some ribbon and helium to make the unique balloon harness

The bright yellow balloon emblazoned with a smiley face means Elmo is easily trackable wherever he wonders to in the garden 

‘He always makes a beeline for under the trees because he wants to dig down.

‘In the past, we’ve lost him for about four hours. People say tortoises are slow but they’ve never met Elmo – he’s speedy.’

She added: ‘I thought we needed to stick something on him or he’ll just get lost. I decided to blow up the balloon and tied it under his belly.

‘We used helium from birthday parties in the past then my mum was like ‘I’ve got a tiny bit of ribbon’.

‘There’s no way we could lose him with that around him. With the balloon I don’t think he can run away as easily as he once could and at least if he does we can find him.

‘When I posted the clip online, the reaction really surprised me.’

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