Beware of this individual. This is my recent interaction with him.
Since Nov 23, I have had problems sifting through to find the truth about Charles Andrew Bartlett, Aka Charles Bartlett, Andrew Bartlett, Andy Bartlett, Charlie Bartlett, Irish Bone, and/or Bone Spitting Venom. He introduced himself to me as Andrew, and he is out of Goldsboro, NC.
I'm local to this individual, and I thought that since I had purchased his last 5 snakes (king snake, 2 boas, a retic, and a burn) for a good package deal on 11/20/17, it was okay to buy more through him. Wrong.
Being that he convinced me that he was getting rid of the nonvenomous snakes to make way for venomous, his true passion, I made an agreement with him to purchase 6 ball pythons.
First, they were coming in with his order of 3 cobras from Florida, then a week later after explained shipping delays, were coming in his new order of 11 rattlesnakes, 2 cobras, and 2 kraits order from Nevada. The amount of money I spent for snakes during this time was $2175, with $725 of being in cash, $675 being directly from my card, and $750 being in PayPal.
Saturday, 11/25/17, we took a ride together in between doing some preparation stuff for the new snakes (upgrading tubs, transporting quarantine racks, etc.), where my son and I witnessed him stuff a white envelope into his jeans pocket during the car ride. I didn't think anything of it at the time since I had picked him up from work that day and I assumed that it was a piece of mail.
Red flags, anyone? It was way more believable when I was in communication with him, as his web of lies seemed to fit the circumstances at the time. Bear with me.
By 12/1/17, two orders of supposed venomous snakes had arrived, one that he said was not coming at first, and then the story changed when I cornered him on the fact that I received delivery confirmation. He told me that his FedEx lady brought the order inside his house, which was why the box wasn't there on the porch shortly after delivery. Right. Turns out that it was his brother, as I confirmed by asking him later that evening when he came over. The other order arrived the next day, which was odd, since I've never seen split orders, and I never agreed to it. As you can tell, my wits are starting to catch up to me now.
He asked me to take a video to film him handling the venomous snakes before getting to my ball pythons. When I saw what came out of the bag, my jaw dropped. He said that they must have put it in as a surprise because they were such good friends. What was this super surprise gift? A green mamba!
No.
It wasn't.
It was just a red tailed green rat snake.
All of 7 of them were, except for 2 which were mangroves. He swore that the mangroves were kraits.
That's right, only 9 snakes total.
One after another, he tiptoed and stomped on the floor as he was handling what he called killer snakes with the smallest hook I've ever seen that was duct taped together in the middle. I wouldn't believe it, but I filmed it myself. He finally got them into my quarantine rack I had brought there as the transport back to my collection. My other rack he had told me he was going to install heat tape in that I provided was still sitting there without heat tape, but he promised he would fix it by the next day. Also, no rattlesnakes, cobras, kraits, or any highly venomous snakes arrived with the orders. That's right, orders plural. I'll get to that.
I packed up my son and his game system, which was occupying him while we were dealing with the snakes. I put the game system into the car and went back in to talk about why my ball pythons weren't in the order. They did not arrive. Why? Charles said that a guy 3 hours away had them the whole time, and that he was waiting on Charles to trade him 4 venomous snakes for them. New story. I didn't buy it. He promised my snakes would be there the next day, 12/2/17, so we made an appointment for 10-10:30am.
When we got home, my son and I discovered that his game system and accessories were missing and when i called to inform Charles, he promised to get him a new one when I arrived the next day.
Around 10am, he called me to ask what I was doing and where I was. Weird. I said I was on the way to his house. He said he wasn't home. I didn't care for anymore games at this point, so I just hung up and continued driving the 8 or 9 minutes to his house where I thought to leave a note to let him know that I had taken the time to drive over an hour to make our appointment.
When I arrived, the front door was wide open and his girlfriend's car was there. I knocked on the door and said Hey. They both answered Hey like nothing was going on. Not home? Another lie. I walked in and simply told him that I was done with the games and told him I was taking my racks and snakes. I took out the tubs from my smaller, unrepaired rack and brought them to the closet as I had done before.
As I turned around, I saw my son's game system sitting right there in plain sight on the shelf! I brought it out to show him that I had discovered that he stole from my son. He admitted his theft and pointed me to where the controllers, headsets, and cables were. At this point, I was furious.
His girlfriend eventually left, and he invited me to talk about everything. The talk didn't last long.
Remember that white envelope he stuffed in his jeans? That was my envelope. And it was full of cash. He confessed to taking it!
That $725 in cash? It was used to pay his rent. I verified with his landlord that he was two months behind on his rent, and the day after he stole my cash, he paid his rent.
The ball pythons? They never existed in the first place! And the pictures were someone else's snakes.
That questionable split order of snakes? It was two orders. The second order was a made with my PayPal funds that he somehow canceled refunding.
Yes, I was taken for a long ride in a fast car. I'm still reeling from all the details and interwoven lies.
A few minutes after he tried his best to convince me that the snakes were highly venomous and that I wasn't qualified to handle them and that he needed my rack because he didn't have any, I started to box them up to transport home. I didn't get far, though, because he paused to take a call, then hurriedly said that his mother was having a heart attack. He pleaded with me to take him to his mother. Like a fool, I agreed, thinking of the gravity of the situation should it prove to be the one thing he said that was true.
By his directions, we rode in what was obviously a big circle, all right turns, and at the stoplight at the corner nearest his house, he called his mom, who promptly answered the phone and said that she was fine. Charles told me that his mother's ex-husband, who was a 911 operator, must have been playing a trick on him. Right. He told me to turn left towards his mother's house, and I turned right, saying that since his mom was fine, I could now load up my racks and snakes before we went over there. (I have never been to his mother's house, and I was not familiar with her.)
He took his time getting out of my van, then had a smoke, then stated that he was not going to let me in to get my stuff. He called the sheriff and falsely claimed that I was breaking and entering. I called 911, stating that he would not let me go it to get my belongings.
The sheriff deputies arrived, and after talking to both of us, told me that it's a civil matter, not criminal. They stated that I am advised to talk it out with him. So, after they left, he invited me in to talk it over... again. I told him that if he wasn't going to give me my stuff, there was nothing to talk about.
Before I left, he assaulted me.
I ended up with no snakes, no money recovered, and no racks, all of which he stole from me.
Felony charges are now pending.
Three days ago, I discovered that his email address,
Bonespittingvenom@gmail.com, is somehow attached to my credit card. This has been added to the list of Charles's suspicious activity as well.
It was only after this terrible situation that I found 2 other threads mentioning this con artist. Wish I had found them earlier:
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=269662
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=317966
Charles Andrew Bartlett /Andy /Charlie / Irish Bone / Bone Spitting Venom
Charles Andrew Bartlett /Andy /Charlie / Irish Bone / Bone Spitting Venom
That sent chills down my spine just thinking about. Thankfully that's not the case, but still.
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