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BURGLARY - thieves caught!

Snakesatsunset Sep 27, 2012 12:41 PM

Just for those that did not know, Snakes at Sunset was burglarized a couple weeks ago. Two people, maybe a third(according to one of them), broke our back door and stole 14 ball pythons from our display rack. They broke our display cabinets to get the tanks out, and took one tank, and 14 balls of different morphs.

Fast foward to the day after the burglary. We placed an ad on craiglist SELLING ball pythons to see if by luck someone would know something. Low and behold, somene contacted us
to identify some snakes they just got from their aunt whose husband died and was a big name breeder, ETC ETC. We askedthem to send us pictures so we can identify them, and you guessed it. EVERY single snake they stole was in the photos.

I printed out pictures we had taken of the snakes for internet sales. I called the Detectives working the case, provided them witht he info I had just learned. After a couple hours,the detectives set up a meeting to "buy" the snakes from them in a home depot parking lot for $1000.00 for all. They showed up and were immediately surrounded by no less then 6 cop cars and undercover cop cars.
The police called us to identify the snakes, so with pictures we had taken before the burglary, we identified them as ours.
They were charged with internet crime, burglary, grand theft, and Fish and wildlife service is charging them with conspiracy to sell animals without a permit. The police also seized their car permanently as it was later found to have been used in the burglary. So now there is a cop driving around in a yellow cobalt
undercover

So either you can say they were dumb, or we were just very lucky, atleast it was resolved and they were caught. The third person is actually a customer, and a person of interest to the detectives,because the apprehended guys claim he busted the door and left, but had put it all together.

Replies (16)

ChrisOz Sep 27, 2012 01:34 PM

gotta love a happy ending and dumb crooks

jsschrei Sep 27, 2012 02:07 PM

I am so glad you were able to recover your animals and these (insert name-calling here)theives will be brought to justice. Thank you for sharing your story. It's a good idea to keep photos of all of your animals in case something terrible like this happens.
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Cheers,
Jessica Gibbs
Ball Pythons; Corn Snakes; Boa Constrictors; Green Tree Python; Jungle Carpet Python
www.supercoilconstrictors.com
LEARNING PREVENTS IGNORANCE OF THAT WHICH SURROUNDS YOU...AS LONG AS THE SOURCE FROM WHICH YOU LEARN IS A VALID ONE.

JYohe Sep 27, 2012 03:22 PM

good.....glad they were caught....you had a good time doing it....
people suck....really bad....

they should be made to clean cages at a couple zoos...snake cages...no gloves and no hooks....and lots of vens....!...

....congrats.....Happy they are in jail....

.....good luck with the third 'friend'...
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........JY

BuzzardBall Sep 27, 2012 05:17 PM

Congrats! There is nothing lower than a thief!

ReptileNexus Sep 27, 2012 05:25 PM

Out of curiosity, what was stolen and how much were they worth in total? I am curious to see if their stupidity goes beyond just what is listed (aka they had like $10K worth of snakes and were selling them for $1k)

ohernz Sep 27, 2012 05:36 PM

My son told me of the burglary...I am glad they got caught. Years ago I used to breed parrots in my backyard. One day someone climbed the back fence and stole several pairs of African greys, Orange wing Amazons and Black Head conures. I never recovered them. I have a Rottweiler and a Pitbull mix now in the backyard
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

RandyRemington Sep 27, 2012 08:14 PM

Congratulations!

"Fish and wildlife service is charging them with conspiracy to sell animals without a permit."

I assume this is a requirement of your state? Sorry to hear that and good luck electing people to get it corrected. Next you’re going to tell me you need a permit to buy and sell the guns to protect your snakes ...
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Randy Remington
anyone@snakemorphs.com
www.SnakeMorphs.com
FaceBook.com/SnakeMorphs

ohernz Sep 28, 2012 04:56 AM

It is a requirement here in Florida. I had to obtain a license because I posted an ad in Craiglist and was contacted by Florida Fish and Wildlife
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Sed et serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae quae fecerat Dominus Deus...

RandyRemington Sep 28, 2012 08:36 AM

Wow, sounds like they might actually be efficient at enforcing regulation. Are they using contractors or an actual case of big government working? Would have liked to do a Florida show at one time but doesn't sound like they encourage the business.
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Randy Remington
anyone@snakemorphs.com
www.SnakeMorphs.com
FaceBook.com/SnakeMorphs

dwherp Sep 27, 2012 10:36 PM

What a great story! Glad it has a happy ending and that all parties got what they deserved... perfect bedtime story... I'll sleep well tonight!

coldthumb Sep 28, 2012 04:09 PM

Great story!..Glad you could recover the animals and catch the two thieves..,but i have to say the part about it was that they lost the car.Icing on the cake! Karma lives!

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Charles Glaspie
picasaweb.google.com/coldthumb

robyn@ProExotics Sep 28, 2012 04:33 PM

Whatever the punishment, I wish it were greater. Scumbags.

Glad to hear of that you recovered your animals.
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Robyn@ ShipYourReptiles.com TheReptileReport.com

and ProExotics.com

TheTruth Sep 29, 2012 04:38 AM

The punishment should be much harsher. Hopefully we can weed out these type of "scumbags" in this business. All of them.

TheTruth Sep 29, 2012 04:40 AM

.......

snakesatsunset Sep 29, 2012 10:49 AM

Weird part is they are not in this business.
They are not even hobbyists. They just saw pricing, or thought they would make a fortune. They also tried to double cross each other by telling the other that the snake died and they would sell it on their own to not split it three ways, only two. And the other guy told one of the other two same thing, lol.

They took:
1.0 calico
0.1 caramel (still missing)
1.0 albino (still missing)
1.0 desert
0.1 butter
1.0 adult butter
2.0 pastels (1 missing)
1.0 enchi
1.0 ghost mojave
1 normal
1.0 yellowbelly
1.0 Spider
0.1 Spider
By missing I am refering to the only three snakes not recovered cause they claimed they "died" within 18 hours after burglary. Its funny cause those are the three snakes they wanted to offer in the double crossing.

mikebell Sep 29, 2012 07:47 PM

I guess on C list they didn't know who they were contacting? I know they are stupid, but it takes a special kind of stupid to ask the guy they stole from to help ID their stash.

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