MORE PET STORE BURGLARIES

There's nothing scary at all about the PA story. Let's be realistic for a moment...

Fingerprints- Hollywood has left society with unrealistic expectations. Lifting prints from the store would be about as useful as picking suspects at random from the white pages. In the movies, you have a nice single set of prints on the counter. In real life, you have thousands of individual prints (most only partials or smudged) all over the place.

Euthanizing animals- In a perfect world, all shelters would be no-kill, but this isn't a perfect world that we live in. After an animal is abandoned and spends a given amount of time in a shelter, it's euthanized. This is the fate that most sheltered animals can expect.

Again Ken, you put forth some excellent points. &nbsp;<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

To Peg and Mark-

I feel terrible for your collective losses. The only help I can offer is moral support. I sincerely wish both of you the best of luck in recovering from this crisis. I am deeply saddened to hear of your troubles. I truly hope you find those responsible for this.

<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''> Guess what? It has happened again! Another Tampa area store was burglarized last night. This time, it's Herp Hobbies in Oldsmar. Partial list of stolen items: 50 baby red tail boas, 30 to 50 baby sand fire beardeds, and some Brazilian Rainbows. Whomever these thieves are, they are watching this board. They know what we know, they know these shops and their inventory as well as their alarm systems. They also must have an outlet to move this stuff fast. There are several shows coming up in the next few weeks, please people, keep your eyes open! I dont think the thieves would try my place, I think they know what would be waiting for them. &nbsp;<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">50 baby red tail boas, 30 to 50 baby sand fire beardeds, and some Brazilian Rainbows</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>

and the percentage of the value of that inventory alone for a halfway descent security system would be.....???

Hell, is some states you could trade ONE of those babies for a nice little shotgun and a case of rounds &nbsp;<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mad.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=''>

Well isn't this a lovely little fiasco. No way to bring a little lime-light to the herp business than by inviting the man to start hanging out here now too. Sheesh.

Well since the theives are apparently reading this - enjoy your fun while it lasts. Sounds like an amateur operation so that shouldn't be too long.

As for the rest of you breeding herps in Florida - get some stinking video systems or firearms for crying out loud!

^Curtis

Curtis, These shops were cased prior to their break-in. Peg's for example, the theives knew all the glass was wired, so they went through the wall! They knew there were no motion detectors, most pet stores don't do them because of the animals setting them off. And the shop owners don't live at their place of business, so they rely on the police and alarm systems. Other shops have had the wires cut. It's a shame that a few bad apples have to make the rest of the hard working people work that much harder and now, for no pay. As for us, we live in the same location, so we welcome the thieves to try breaking into our place! They won't leave in one piece. Fair warning to them, I think they are reading this! Bring it on man!

ok heres my take on this ... &nbsp;im with Ken its called better security!!!!!!! .. ok so they went through the wall to break in the store ..
A) &nbsp;this tells me there were not enough lighting in the area they busted the wall out in <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>
</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote </td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">there were no motion detectors, most pet stores don't do them because of the animals setting them off. And the shop owners don't live at their place of business, so they rely on the police and alarm systems</td></tr></table><span id='postcolor'>
the ONLY person i trust is me police are not gonna be prolific in looking for &quot;your&quot; pets
there are several ramifictions in keeping your stuff in your stores ...
ok ill run down a list &nbsp; then tell me store owners what you have &nbsp;off this list and then talk to someone about what you dont have on the list .
i would say for less then $1000.00 us dollars &nbsp;you will be in the posistion to STOP them or catch them n the act how you ask ... well for less then $1000 i have made my very own FORT KNOX here in Gods country in the woods

Checklist for stopping theifs
2- closed circut TV systems &nbsp;w / 4 cameras &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;$250.00
( one in snake building , one on end of house facing front of snake building, one facing up LONG driveway to road , one on back of house facing back of snake house)
2- VCR's ( one normal &quot;dummy VCR&quot; and one 24 hr recordable VCR)$300 for both
4- 300 watt motion detectors $100.00
2-motion switches for cameras $75.00
1-alarm system with ( closed circut unit) means when ANY wire /magnetic switches are CUT !!!! &nbsp;it will go off &nbsp;
now what am i protecting here with all this <img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'> 6 snakes ..... are the priceless ... not really &nbsp;butto me they are and &nbsp;one day ( soon ) they will be worth ALOT more when they start breeding &nbsp;and giving me albinos , snows and anerys etc ...
one thing i learned in buisness is that you have to learn from others mistakes in keeping &nbsp;things the way tthey shopuld be i mean &nbsp;if you are following &nbsp;a person through a field they step in Bull S__T &nbsp;are you gonna step in the same place ?no you better your self stay safe aND GO AROUND BY WATCHING THE MISTAKES MADE BY THAT PERSON ...
its sad &nbsp;the breakins happened .. but for gods sake people if this is you &quot; bread &amp; water&quot; &nbsp;being a petshop owner .... TREAT it like it and dont skimp on the &quot;security&quot; Jenny you say motion dectectors are set off by animals right .. well i see &nbsp;that can be eaisily passed by one thing at night &nbsp;use sheets to cover cages &nbsp;, etc where animals are kept , with them covered they cant set things off ... use motion powered cameras !!!<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>? that way &nbsp;if they get tripped to come on ... well they are filming the theif and not some humdrum parrot flying in the cage , &nbsp;or not the frolicing lil ferrets &nbsp;or even the big snake in the display cage..



again im sorry for the breakins but &nbsp;i hafta agree asking people to give after being so BURNT with no one held responsible for the last fiasco i mean then &nbsp;next everyone is giving handouts &nbsp;to who ever cries i was robbed .. i see it this way ...
1st break in &nbsp;damn what a tragedy
2nd break in &nbsp;hmmm i need to do something
3rd break in ... &nbsp;what am i a fool
4th ....... get a new buisness ....
dont be pissed about this &nbsp;just my feelings i mean i was robbed once in my buisness of &quot;kitchens &amp; baths&quot; lost over $6 g in tools in less then 20 mins &nbsp;now it WONT happen again w/o them being caught on tape

I have to agree that better security systems are called for. That is the cost of doing business in todays world. People should not comecrying if they did not have the most effective security sytem that was cost evffective for the merchandise they had in stock. There is also another security option beside just using electroinics, this is called a BIG MOTHER JUMPING GUARD DOG, like a Rotweiller, a German Shepard, or a Doberman.

Since all of these shops are in the same area, then why don't the owners who have been robbed and those who have not been robbed approach the city council for protection. If they go en masse they may get results.

As far as the police doing a full scale investigation, that is a bunch of humbug and you folks should realize that. If you don't then let me tell you that the bottom line is actually the bottom line. Yes an investigation that costs thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars will not be performed for a burglary that netted only thousand of dollars of stock. That is simply the way it is. In NYC, over fifteen years ago, the necessary amount that needed to be heisted in order to initiate a real investigation was over $5,000. I can only imagine that it is much higher than that today. This is why all of the victims and all of the potential victims should go en masse to their city council or mayor and pitch a bitch.

Even if the police open a real investigation that they actually intend to work, taking fingerprints from a pet shop might be ludicrous, especially after you may have had tens of people shopping in there in one afternoon. Of course they may find a print or two. Then again, if these burgulars have been so professional as to case targets beforehand, and knew enough that to defeat an alarm system they could go through a wall, and then did not awaken anyone within a mile while doing so, well these guys may just be smart enough to actually wear gloves while working.

One other thing the owners can do is to be vigilant. It is usualy fairly obvious when someone is casing a place. They are not looking at your snakes as much as paying attention to entrances, alaerm systems and so forth. Keep an eye out for this, these guys usually come back more than once to do it - well if yo notice it, start sleeping in the shop for a week. Don't sleep there alone. Hire a security service to send a guard. Or you could, and this must be your decision as an adult of sound mind, sleep there with Mr. Remington 870 shotgun or other legally obtained and legally possessed firearm with which you are fully familiar and which you are fully qualified to use (if you don't know how to safely, accurately, and efficiently use it in a potential or actual combat situation then forget about it all together). This is my opinion, all of the above is my opinion. Make sure whatever you do is legal, and if you decide to keep a gun in the store, make sure you absolutely know when you can and cannot defend yourself or the life of another with a gun. As for defending property with a ggun - forget about it - I am pretty sure that is now illegal everywhere. Better security systems are easier, as would be the purchase of a trained guard dog.