Man Who Ran Over Gopher Tortoise Apologizes, Says It Was Accident

DUNEDIN, FL -- Children at San Jose Elementary School had their faith in humanity restored Monday after the person who ran over the school's pet gopher tortoise came forward to say the tortoise's death was an accident.

Robert Dantschisch, 48, a school crossing guard for the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office, said he never even saw the tortoise until it was too late.

According to deputies, Dantschisch saw the surveillance video of Jose the gopher tortoise getting run over on television and contacted the sheriff's office to report that he was responsible.

Dantschisch has been employed by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office for approximately three weeks and is assigned as a school crossing guard for San Jose Elementary School.

Dantschisch told deputies that on Saturday, Aug. 11, he drove his 2013 Acura TSX to San Jose Elementary School accompanied by his wife, Dawn, 46, to map out the route to the school in preparation for his first day of work on Monday, Aug. 13.

Dantschisch said he drove into the school's bus circle and stopped to look at the school start times on the school's marquee. He then proceeded forward but was looking back at the sign when he felt the car run over something in the road. Dantschisch said he looked in his rear view mirror and saw that he had run over a tortoise.

He said it didn't occur to him that the tortoise could have survived being run over so he didn't stop. His wife corroborated his story.

Nearby resident Amanda Knapp found the tortoise still alive but badly injured and called deputies who summoned wildlife specialists at Owls Nest Sanctuary for Life in Odessa. The tortoise's shell had been crushed and, despite efforts to save it, the tortoise died (see related story).

The tortoise was one of a pair that made their home on the elementary school campus. The children named them Jose and Sandy after their elementary school.

Deputies conducted a reenactment of the events related by Dantschisch and found no evidence to indicate that Dantschisch intentionally drove over the tortoise. While it appears in the video that the driver stopped to wait for the tortoise to crawl in front of the car and then intentionally accelerated to run over it, Dantschisch was actually stopping to check the marquee. He and his wife never saw the tortoise until they'd already hit it.

Deputies concluded there was no criminal intent and have closed the case.

Video via Pinellas Sheriff

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