View Comments
David Tesch came home to find his pet missing - all five tons of her. Lydia, a 43-year-old elephant, had broken out of a concrete walking pen on Tesch's rural spread in Polk County, Fla., while he was attending a circus Thursday. Tesch looked for his 9,700-pound pet without any luck. Fearing she might wander off and get hurt, he called the sheriff. Deputy John Mitchell was dispatched. As he drove around, Mitchell envisioned headlines: "Deputy stomped." A search of the Tesch grounds was interrupted by a tremendous snort. "I shined my flashlight at her, then I looked up - and up and up and up," Mitchell said. "She's huge." But she's as nice as she is big, Tesch said as he led her back to her quarters.