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NEWS & OBSERVER (Raleigh, North Carolina) 03 November 05 Man arrested in 'snake fraud' case
A Moncure man was arrested today in what the Chatham County Sheriff's Department is calling a case of "snake fraud."
Robert Penny, 33, of 149 Haley Meadows Drive, was charged with obtaining property by false pretenses after a California man says he sent Penny $18,000 for five python snakes and never received them, according to Sheriff’s detective Mike Szpunar.
The California man, Chris Simone of San Jose, also said he sent Penny 26 female snakes to be bred by males, Szpunar said in a release. When Simone didn't receive the five pythons, he asked for his 26 snakes back, according to the release. Five of the 26 snakes had died of malnutrition before they arrived back in California, the release said. Penny was released under a $1,000 unsecured bond.
Man arrested in 'snake fraud' case

NEWS OBSERVER (Raleigh, North Carolina) 04 November 05 Snake mating took a twist - Chatham man accused of fraud (Lisa Hoppenjans)
Moncure: It's the first case of snake fraud that Maj. Gary Blankenship of the Chatham County Sheriff's Office has seen in his 25 years in law enforcement.
Robert Penny, 33, of 149 Haley Meadows Drive in Moncure was arrested Wednesday on a charge of felonious obtaining property by false pretenses, Blankenship said. He was released from custody on a $1,000 unsecured bond.
Chris Simone, who runs a ball python breeding business in San Jose, Calif., said he wired Penny $18,000 in March to buy one ball python and rent others for breeding in an arrangement similar to a stud service.
The purchased python showed up, but the others never did.
Penny could not be reached for comment.
Simone said in a phone interview Thursday that he also sent Penny 26 of his own female snakes for breeding with some of Penny's males as part of the agreement. But he couldn't get Penny to return them, he said.
He finally took a flight to Raleigh and showed up on Penny's doorstep at 8:30 a.m. one Sunday in June.
Penny was "pretty shocked" to see him, Simone said.
He got his snakes back, but he said they had not been bred and looked neglected. Seven of the snakes, worth $1,000 to $2,000 each, died during the overnight trip home.
Simone said he still hasn't gotten his money back. He called the Sheriff's Office last week.
"I've tried in a friendly and professional manner to find ways to remedy the situation, but he chose to ignore me, and this is the consequence," Simone said.
Snake mating took a twist - Chatham man accused of fraud