Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm starting a new post because I really think this should be kept on top of the forum.

Jeff, I can't stop thinking about what happened to you.
I just can't believe someone would do such a thing to another person. This is SICKENING. I'm in utter DISGUST.
I know exactly how must feel. I was robbed by my best friend. He and a few other guys took all my guitar equipment, all my CD's, my electronics....and trashed the place. Anyways, that's not important.

I'm confident that if everyone works together, as we all should, you'll get your stuff back. Rest assured that if you don't, I will definitely do my best to hook you up and help you get back on your feet.

This snake business is a pretty tightly knit industry, and this could have been ANYONE OF US. I really hope everyone tries to do what they can to help you.

Yeah, that is pretty screwed up. It must have been someone who knows the value of these things. I agree with a lot of the suggestions that you've gotten, Jeff. Keep an eye out on the classifieds, and check local stores to see if they've gotten anything high priced all of a sudden. I hope that the fingerprints that the cops got lead you to something as well.

I am one of those small time breeders who has been fortunate to have the opportunity to get into this business. My first prject was bought into about a year ago. I don't even have a site, or anything produced as of yet, but I do know that I have spent a lot of hard earned cash on the projects that I DO have. And I've spent a lot of time learning about taking care of them, and breeding and feeding them, and money on that as well. And I can't even imagine if something like that were to happen to me after all this money and time.

So, even though I'm new to all this, and I may not be able to do anything close to what the bigger breeders like Jeremy Stone and Boa Republic can do to help, I still offer any help that I can give. I just hate to see this happen to people. I really hope that you are able to find your stuff, and the bastards that did this get what's coming to them.

Ara
Constrictor Concepts Reptiles

I also posted the report OF the theft on another forum where someone had done an INQUIRY a while back. So it is on that BOARD also. Craig Kade

In all honesty it sounds like someone who knew you. From my experience dealing in breakins for insurance purposes most people will totally trash anothers home when they are trying to distract them from the main purpose of the breakin. What I mean is whoever broke into your house had every intention of stealing your snakes but wanted to throw you off by trashing your house and making it look like they were looking for other valuable items. Thats just what is sounds like to me? So don't rule anyone out! If the cops found finger prints and they end up not belonging to you or anyone else in your family there is a chance the finger prints will not be on file, unless the person or persons who stole your snakes and left the finger prints were arrested before. If worse comes to worse ask some people who you know and who knew about the snakes to go down and get finger printed. Just tell them the police are asking anyone who knew about the snakes to come in for finger prints. Good Luck.

sorry again for your loss.
Rene Montez

I am very sorry this happened of course, don't get me wrong, but it is so ironic. The old saying "the more you pay the more it's worth" comes to mind. Do you think anyone would have broken in and stolen a collection of bps a few years ago before the whole morph craziness started? If you are a typical thief bent on stealing valuables from a house there are a lot more "convenient" items to take than snakes! Who but a fellow breeder/bp keeper would even consider them worth stealing in the first place? I'm not interested in bps because of their investment value and sad events like this just reinforce my view. Normals are very beautiful in themselves, I don't have the collecting bug, no one is going to be tempted to steal mine, and individual personalities are more important to me anyway. It's just sad that we create a high intensity need for something, end up inflating its value and then suffer when the thing of value gets targeted by thieves. For the snakes' sake I hope they are being well treated.

jeff
sorry to hear about this. i can only image your loss. i have been putting thousands into my bp's as well & i can't image what i would do if that happened to me. i hope you get them back. hey if you suspect someone play dumb & try to get them to touch something you can bring to be dusted for prints. like a business card or anything else. asking someone to get finger printed is hard. this way you dont hurt anyone feelings but you still keep working on leads

good luck!

I'd like to see the guys responsible fed to a big retic somewhere. (my poetic justice). (Guess I'll never be a judge in this politically correct world.) They will probably just get a slap on the wrist if they get caught.

Good luck on getting them back, that's the important thing!

Rodney

...if they show up somewhere. Just an idea....
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JMHO, FWIW, YMMV.

Speaking about IDs, has anyone found a way to microchip snakes? The "tag" would only be visible to those with an optical reader, but they would be traceable and buyers could check up on the seller's claims at any vet's. Even if the snakes were not actually chipped it might scare off thieves if it was generally known that a collection was chipped and traceable.

There are several:

http://www.avidid.com/technology/index.html

http://www.spah.com/usa/products/fulldescr.cfm?prodid=273&sID=1

Not sure how much the readers cost.

Hearing that was very disturbing. I truly feel your pain. I experienced a rash of break-ins at my previous retail facility (three in a very short time) and the last one really did me in. Animals, cages smashed, etc...it's pretty bad. I know there's nothing I can say, but trust me, this will ONLY make you stronger. This is by far a HUGE loss for you, but never give up hope...plus you have alot of people here, some you know - some you don't, that will do everything possible to help you out!! Best of luck, and although I'm 1,500 miles or more from you, I assure you if I see/hear ANYTHING, I will let you know!! Good luck!!!
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(I brought this post up here even though I posted it below)

Jared, that is way too cool. I hope that others may also get involved in any way. I'm sure with more on the table someone is willing to take the reward and do the right thing then get some snakes really cheap and not say anything. The ONLY way they can get away with this is.

1. Raise them up and breed them and BROKER the babies. This is where I have a problem with SOME brokers that won't verify their sources. I have a guy who bought a pair of Motleys from me that promised to pay me 10G. He only gave me 6G and promised to pay me 4G later. Well two and 1/2 years later I still have nothing. I sent him the snakes on his WORD that he would pay me later. He has since sold the Motleys for a big profit, and has produced Spiders, etc.... He just brokers them through 2 people on kingsnake so his name can be hidden. He still has yet to call me and make this wrong a right. He can justify it all he wants, but the Truth I would have NEVER sent him that Special male Motley would it not have been his word he would pay me the money later. What is a bigger shame is that people know about this but still deal with the guy because he gives them "GREAT" deals. I have had some bigger breeders stand up for me on this one though. THANKS V.P.I. and RDR who asked me about them then knowing the situation declined a trade. I've been too busy to go the legal route, but I just found out how to do leins on propery, and this will be my best chance I guess.

2. He will try to sell the animals, and the buyer may know they have a chance of being "HOT" but the Price is TOO good to pass up and just not say anything. This happened to Bob Clark as we know many people ended up with Albinos that were Bobs. They can justify the snake purchase because they didn't steal them, but what they don't realize is they enable the behavior. However, IF the reward becomes Large enough one of those potential buyers might decide to take the reward instead of the KILLER deal, and BANG Jeff gets his stuff back, and we crack down on this crap.

Too bad we live in a society that is like this. Nobody is perfect, but this is FLAT OUT WRONG. Like Alex said, this is a close nit society, and with the right people listening to what is really going on, all it will take is ONE move for this idiot and he goes to Jail, and Jeff gets his snakes. This REWARD is SERIOUS!!!! I PROMISE my offer, and I hope others do the same. Turning in this person is far more valiant then us offering this reward, so if you can't help with offering any type of reward, PLEASE HELP with keeping your eyes and ears open. Jared, I admire you. You didn't even do business with Jeff yet you are willing to offer something. THIS I admire. I feel I should at least do something because I know his HARD earned money bought those animals from me. I feel AWFUL. His male Spider had Sperm plugs, and his mojave was breeder size too. I would get e-mails every month or so from Jeff with his Spider and his Mojave on a scale. Each time the scale would show how much bigger they got. His male Spider was in the 600 gram range. I could just feel the excitment he had. For him to be deflated like this is just AWFUl. Not to mention he is also going through a Personal blow he and his wife (Especially his wife) have to overcome. They will hopefully get over this hurdle, but the Snake loss is a BIG hoop. Let's ALL HELP!!!!! Jeremy Stone

I have been keeping reptiles for the majority of my life.....not because of what they are worth, but because i absolutly love them and enjoy working with them.....but to think that someone would come into your home to take them because they dont have the resources to attain them legitimately is sickening.

I hope that we can get as many people as possible together on this to help try to get any info on these criminals.....

Its not going to be easy to hide what they stole..

Jared Horenstein