North Austin pet store burglarized for 4th time
Thieves took 125 animals but not the food required to keep them alive
By Regina Dennis
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
The owners of a North Austin exotic pet store are hoping that a move to a new location will mean that burglars will finally leave them alone.
Herpeton Exotic Pets, now in the Crossroads Shopping Center on Burnet Road south of U.S. 183, has been burglarized four times in the past three years. The most recent break-in happened Sunday night, when an estimated $25,000 in animals and merchandise was stolen.
"This had to be at least a two- or three-man job, definitely," said Mike Faglie, one of the store's managers. "They needed a large van or truck of some type to pack off everything they took."
The store lost about 125 animals Sunday, including 40 emerald scorpions, 20 small water turtles, six baby sulcata land turtles, six baby sugar gliders, three Nile monitor lizards and three boa constrictors. The burglars also stole several aquarium filters, various heating lamps and light fixtures for reptile habitats, and 10 medium to large fish aquariums that Faglie suspects were used to carry off the stolen merchandise.
"One of the 75-gallon tanks was sitting in the middle of the floor filled up with merchandise, where they must have been startled or changed their minds and left it behind," Faglie said.
Another thing the burglars left behind: food for the animals.
"They didn't take any of the food to feed these animals," said Billy Williams, another store manager. "They don't have the proper items to care for all these animals. They need the right light, the right nutrition, the right temperatures, the right habitats, and without that, these animals will probably die within a week."
Williams said the likelihood of the store recovering the stolen animals is slim.
"If they would have taken (this) albino python or one of the other rare snakes we have, and it turns up somewhere, I could say for sure that it was ours," he said. "Our best bet for finding our animals would be the baby water turtles, because it is illegal to sell those in Texas. We had them on hand for elementary school classes."
The store did not have surveillance cameras. The surveillance system was destroyed in the past two burglaries, and the owners said they decided not to replace it again because of the upcoming move.
Herpeton is moving to 9327 Burnet Road, north of U.S. 183, in two weeks. Williams said the store plans to install indoor and outdoor surveillance cameras.
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