Police Investigated This Home Because The Stench Was Unbearable

What is that saying again about never having smoke without fire? That played out in a little village in Madagascar until locals were forced to act on the obvious clues. 

When the smell first arrived in the Madagascan neighborhood, no one could pinpoint where it was coming from. They initially brushed it off as an August visitor that came with the winds and would soon have no choice but to leave. 

Eventually, everyone agreed the smell was coming from the abandoned house. So, neighbors talked about how to investigate the terrible smell and eliminate it as soon as possible.

As if someone had let the house in on the neighbor’s plot, the smell suddenly stopped. Then the supposedly abandoned building started to receive occasional visitors. 

Just when the neighbors were heaving a sigh of relief from the terrible smell of the house, it returned.

To get the ball rolling, an officer obtained a warrant to search the property based on a number of complaints by the neighbors. 

Interestingly, Soary Randrianjafizanaka—head of the local wildlife committee—happened to live in the neighborhood. So, she was invited to participate in investigating the smelly residence. 

The town in question is located on one of the beautiful coasts of Madagascar. Toliara is a town known for its serenity and the friendliness of its occupants. 

When it comes to criminal offenses or social disturbances involving animals, Madagascar’s Environmental Agency is always up to the task. Besides rescuing stranded animals or wild ones that occasionally stray into human colonies, they equally look into cases of animal abuse and environmental pollution.

Back to the house under investigation, Randrianjafizanaka, the police officers, and other team members proceeded with caution. Interestingly, the pungent smell coming from the property is different from what the wildlife committee of the Environmental Agency had ever encountered.

As the team checked around the property, almost every other part of the building looked normal except for the strong and terrible smell. The house was too quiet to believe any activity had occurred there recently.

As the team explored every inch of the house, some had to step to catch an occasional breath due to the smell. But they refused to back down before finding the very source of the stench.

It would have been difficult for anyone to live in such conditions, which explains why the house was found empty. But it was obvious that something had been actively refueling the source of the pungent smell.

Out of the blue, the team heard an audible shuffle close by. Of course, it wasn’t a loud noise, but the quietness of the house caused everyone present to hear it.

At the turn of the next corner, the team chanced upon actual people—with shovels in their hands—and they were digging frantically. The noise of their digging was probably guilty of giving away their position inside the big house.

Luckily, the men found within the property were locals, not tourists. So, the police officers stepped forward to question them. However, the look on the diggers’ faces said it all; they had the demeanor of people who had just been busted.

No concrete evidence had been found to rule the men in that house as criminals. However, the police officers had to first take them into custody and lead them to the other personnel waiting outside.

It was now obvious that the smell was coming from the room where the digging men had been arrested. When members of the raiding team returned, they found the room in pitch darkness and considerable disrepair. 

Some other team members fetched a bright light source with which the room was illuminated. Under the light’s influence, every team member could see that the room was crawling with tortoises.

Randrianjafizanaka told other team members what she knew about these tortoises. They are widely known as radiated tortoises and were being hoarded in the abandoned house because there is obviously something special about them.

It is an economic fact that rare items tend to be valued highly. So, poachers tend to always be on the lookout for these radiated tortoises because they fetch handsome prices on the black market.

Immediately Randrianjafizanaka saw the tortoises; she knew exactly what was expected of her. So, she swung into action to save these endangered species kept in an unstable environment.

From Randrianjafizanaka’s expert knowledge about radiated tortoises, she could tell that every second the animals spent in that abandoned house spelled doom for them. She informed the team that the tortoise species do not do well in cramped spaces.

As the tortoises were being moved out of the abandoned building to safer locations, Randrianjafizanaka made sure a head count was carried out. The wildlife committee wanted to ensure each radiate specie was accounted for.

While Randrianjafizanaka was unhappy with the poor conditions in which the radiated tortoises were hoarded, she was glad her team could recover that population from a single den.

Right after the evacuation, the tortoises were taken to a new location with access to as much space and resources as necessary. The 9,000 tortoises were equally provided with veterinarians to care for the sick ones.

The poachers exploited the radiated tortoises for monetary benefits, but Randrianjafizanaka, her team, and other members of law enforcement saw to it that the animals were liberated. Unfortunately, despite all the efforts and care, some of the tortoises still lost their lives.

Only a couple of neighbors were bold enough to enter the building, along with law enforcement. The police officers needed a guide, after all. Others stood outside the building to observe what would come of the investigation. 

When the story broke, a movement began. Wildlife preservation activists educated locals about the dangers to our ecological diversity of poaching exotic animals—particularly endangered species. 

Of the 9,000 radiated tortoises that were rescued, roughly 8,000 survived. The Environmental Agency and the wildlife team were reluctant to release them back into the wild since they wouldn’t want the animals to fall into the hands of other poachers.