Hey guys, it’s me Nate. As many of you know I am a regular on here but you will probably no longer see me on here…at least for a long while. My home and car were recently broken into and all of my snakes were taken. I am a complete mess and have been crying for the past hour. The time, the passion, and the money were all ripped away from me by someone who is a selfish human being and I need time to recuperate and I ask that if any of you in the southern California region see a large collection made up of clown ball pythons and large females being sold then please, please contact me. I am in no way asking for a pity party just your understanding. I want to give my greatest appreciation to the mods and all of the users who have made this hobby a great time for me, I love all of you guys and hope you are doing well and continue to do well.
Oh my God, that’s so awful, I’m so sorry! Do you have any leads on who could have done this, because it sounds like it was someone who knew you had valuable ball pythons, given that snakes aren’t usually something the average burgler goes for.
Do you have any recognizable/rare snakes that we can try to keep an eye out for for? I have plenty of down time and am more than happy to keep an eye out on Craigslist/MM to see if any are listed. Just let me know what cities to look in
Thank you I really do appreciate it. I’m located in Downey california so I would assume who did this will try to sell here or other neighboring cities. I honestly have no idea who could have done something like this but some of the noticeable balls are a male leopard clown, spotnose het clown, many normal het females and other clown related stuff. Cornsnakes were also taken in the burglary…I really appreciate this so thank you very much
If anyone is in Southern California, it also might be a good idea for someone to join some local ball python/reptile facebook groups and keep an eye out there.
Oh no, I’m really heartbroken to hear that! I’d be devastated if any of my snakes were taken from me, they’re my babies.
I really hope you can recover at least some if not all of your snakes. I wish I could be of more help but I have my hands full at the moment. Best of luck and I hope things turn out for the better!
That’s horrible you have my deepest sympathies.
Same thing happened to a friend of over Christmas last year. I’m assuming you filed a police report. Call the as many of the pet stores and talk to the managers to keep an eye out, as well as Craigslist, Facebook, and similiar forums. The community here locally banded together and were able to get the guy caught, but also recovered almost his entire collection.
I sincerely wish you the best of luck recovering your collection.
I am so, so sorry, which doesn’t even express half of how sorry I truly am. If you have any kind of list of your snakes - morphs, sexes, hets, etc. for as many as possible, that way we can all keep an eye out for pairs or sets of snakes being sold together or by the same person. Corn snakes too! I don’t have much time but I’d be HAPPY to keep an eye whenever and wherever I can.
Sorry to hear that, hopefully this does not affect your drive and passion, I know right now it does because it just has happen however after a while when things get back to normal the best therapy will be to jump back in.
@nathan_e I’m at a loss for words, I know how much this all meant to you. They were not just your hobby, they were your future and you put countless hours into finding very specific females for your plans. I’m heartbroken for you, I can’t even begin to understand how you are feeling.
What was taken exactly? Just the snakes or the tubs aswel? If it’s just the snakes then we’re looking at someone who came prepared with bags and likely has a set up prepared for them. If it’s the tub then we’re looking at someone who owns a van.
Was anything other than your snakes taken?
please post every single picture you have of you snakes onto this thread… Watermarked.
Get in touch with both your local police station and local wildlife charities. If it was just your average burglar that saw a opportunity, they will likely have little ways of selling them on and may just end up dumping them.
If you can think of any way we can help, we are here for you dude. Please don’t let this be the end of the road.
Nathan, i am so very sorry. This is just awful, gotta think though this has to have been someone that knows you or is friends with someone who knows you. Most people don’t take animals in a robbery unless they know the value of the animal/s. Either way i am very sorry for you to have to go thru this and i hope you continue to be apart of the community.
I’m so sorry Nathan! It’s not clear from your post… Did you call the police and have them check the scene out, or at least report the break in? Did you talk to all of your neighbors? My guess is it’s someone you know, most robbers would run from snakes, not steal them. They most definitely knew they were there. I feel for you brother! I hope this all gets sorted out!
I really didn’t expect this to get as many replies as it did but later today I will be posting pictures of the aftermath. I have filed a report but I don’t know whether I can pin this on management because my apartment complex has been having a big problem with people breaking in and going through the trash and I have made multiple requests for them to add a security gate or at the very least some cameras. The sad part is that it could even have been one of my neighbors and my snakes are only a few houses away and I don’t even know it…
That’s a good idea, thank you.
Here are some of the things I think would be sold first:
1.0 Leopard clown
0.8 het clown females
Various corns that are mainly adults
Mexican black king snake
Adult female clown
Some of the many things lost that I invested a lot of my time in. I am not sure if the person that took my snakes knows that the normals are hets so they may try to sell them in a group of normals.
