MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER (Alabama) 06 December 08 Police investigating theft of 22 snakes (Marty Roney)
Prattville: How do you investigate the theft of $10,000 worth of boa constrictors?
Carefully, said Prattville Police Chief Alfred Wadsworth.
On Thursday a Prattville man reported someone stole 22 Amazon Tree Boas, and 21 plastic containers valued at about $90, from a 12-feet-by-12-feet storage shed behind his home in the 600 block of Lower Kingston Road.
"I hope they are stolen, and not lost," deadpanned the chief. "We contacted the conservation department an confirmed the snakes aren't poisonous. Since the containers that held the snakes were also stolen, we think this is a legitimate theft case."
Constrictors aren't venomous, they kill their prey by squeezing.
So who would steal almost two dozen snakes ranging in length from 2 to about 6 feet?
Jacob Brooks has an idea and passed the information along to the police. He was breeding the snakes to sell to other hobbyists.
"I've always been interested in snakes," the 29-year-old said. "I got my first snake when I was about 17. Tree boas only get to be about 6-and-a-half feet long. Most of my snakes are anywhere from 2- to 4-feet long and sexually immature. I had two that were about 6-feet long."
He's been breeding the boas about two years, he said.
Brooks doesn't believe the snakes pose a risk to his neighbors, since they were likely kept inside their containers when they were nabbed.
He's used to getting strange reactions when he tells people of his hobby.
"Most of the time people just look at you and say 'Whaaat?" he said. "But sometimes you get somebody that says 'That's cool.'"
Needless to say this is new ground to Prattvile polise investigators.
"I don't recall us working a similar case before," said Wadsworth, who joined the force as a patrolman in 1970.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/article/20081206/NEWS01/812060374

MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER (Albama) 12 December 08 Snakes not missing afterall (Marty Roney)
Prattville: The Great Snake Caper wasn't a caper at all.
Somebody was worried that $10,000 worth of Amazon Tree Boas weren't being properly cared for while their owner, Jacob Brooks, was away from home, and took them for safekeeping to a place the cold-blooded reptiles could stay warm. When the owner came home and found his 22 slithery pets missing, he called the cops.
Prattville Police Chief Alfred Wadsworth said "no criminal charges will be filed."
The snakes were taken last week from a 12-foot-by-12-foot storage shed behind Brooks' home in the 600 block of Lower Kingston Road, and the episode ended happily for all but one of the critters.
"We recovered the snakes, all except one which apparently died of natural causes," said Wadsworth, who added that all the living snakes had been returned to Brooks.
Constrictors are non-poisonous snakes that kill prey by squeezing. Brooks said last week he breeds them to sell over the Internet to other hobbyists.
Most of the snakes were 2- to 4-feet in length, with a couple going about 6-and-a-half feet long, he said.
Brooks could not be reached for comment this week -- calls to his home on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday went unanswered and there was no answering machine hooked up to the phone. Neighbors said Brooks moved.
Several neighbors approached declined to comment about the snakes being kept in the neighborhood.
If Brooks decided to keep the snakes in another location in the city, he might have to buy a business license, the chief said.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812120318

MONTGOMERY ADVERTISER (Albama) 13 December 08 Snakes Alive! No criminal charges in case of swiped serpents - Local boa breeder could be cited for operating unlicensed business (Don Fletcher
Prattville Police Department investigators didn't have to put the squeeze on any suspects during an investigation that led to the eventual recovery of 22 South American boa constric­tors that were reportedly stolen recently from a Lower Kingston Road residence.
The non-venomous snakes - Amazon tree boas, two of which were adults that reached about six-feet long - were reportedly taken from a 144-square-feet storage shed behind the home on Dec. 4.
The victim told officers that he had been breeding the snakes for the past two years for sale to other herpetologists and snake enthusiasts. Most of the serpentine contraband fell into the 2-4 feet length category, the owner reported.
According to police reports, the snakes, along with the plastic containers in which they were kept and the humidifiers and other equipment that kept the storage-shed climate near that of the reptiles' native land, had a collective value of more than $10,000. The snakes and all the climate-control equipment were recovered within three days of the reported theft.
Police Chief Alfred Wads­worth, who has been with the local department for 28 years, said last week that the incident and subsequent police probe marked the first such case during that span that involved stolen serpents.
"I don't remember us working a similar case," he said.
Amazon tree boas are members of a breed of snake that lives, eats, drinks, mates, and gives birth in the trees of tropical South America, according to The Boa Kingdom Web site. The online site is dedicated to the "captive husbandry and propagation" of the reptilian species, whose natural habitat includes Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil and several other countries.
Wadsworth said this week that no criminal charges would be filed in connection with the theft incident, but that the local entrepreneur could face charges related to the breeding operation he admitted that he was conducting.
"The snakes were all recov­ered and returned to their owner," the police chief said. "No charges have been filed. How­ever, the case is still under in­vestigation in an effort to make sure no city ordinances were vi­olated."
Wadsworth did not provide details as to what municipal statutes might have been breached in such a case, but a Prattville woman who kept several tropical and other birds in her home was charged last year with operating a business without a license.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008812130314

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