Beware: Brian Dofford-Johnson aka Pops @ Primal Ectotherms

Although I was under the impression that Brian and I were friends, I found out I was wrong.

Brian and I started talking and got to know each other over a few months time. He traded me some stuff and I also bought a Jaguar Normal Sibling Carpet Python from him, as a female. I kept the snake for around four months without sexing it myself. I was double checking a couple snakes before cooling time and decided to check ‘her’. The snake probed as a male. I emailed Brian and told him about it, and he offered to trade that snake back for another that was supposed to be a female. I never asked for it to be replaced. I told him that was fine and I wasn’t really concerned with it after that.

Before we traded back, I had purchased another snake off of a website that was misrepresented. When I got her and realized she wasn’t what she was supposed to be I tried to solve that problem, but the seller disappeared on me. So I offered her up for sale for what I paid, $200 plus shipping. Brian e-mailed me and told me he wanted to buy her, this was around the end of September. He asked me if I could hold her until the beginning of October and I said I would. Well, the third week of October came and he then asked me to hold her until the following week. This continued until the first week in November and then he told me he could ship my ‘female’ Jag Sibling and a Money Order for $200 out and asked if I could ship the male Jag Sibling and the other female snake to him on the same day. He said he was going to a reptile show and wanted to get the male back beforehand so he could offer it for sale. I shipped as per his request, only to find out that evening that he did not. During that weekend, while he was at the reptile show, he sold the female snake that he never paid me for. I did eventually get the other Jag Sibling, the following Thursday. As soon as I got home I probed it and it was in fact a male. I contacted him immediately and told him about it, and also asked him about the $200. He said that three different people probed the snake as a female, which was either apparently another lie or he had three people that didn’t know what they were doing probe the snake. As for the money, he told me he bought a few things with the $200 he sold MY snake for and he would send out a money order later that week. Never happened. Onto the next lie……

Later that week when he was supposed to send out the $200 he called me and told me that the person he sold the snake to returned it and he gave them their money back. I am sorry, but first of all that is not my problem, he purchased the snake from me (although he never paid for it) and I was owed $200 regardless of if he could sell it or not. Also, if someone buys a snake in person, holds the snake, gets to take a good look at it and is happy with it, then the sale should have been final. I find it very hard to believe that he was interested in helping that person out when he wasn’t even interested in paying me for the snake.

He then told me that he had another local person interested in it. A few days later he called me and said he sold it to them, so I though good I will finally get my money for the snake. NOT! When it came time for him to send the money this time, he told me that he took a personal check and the buyer put a stop payment on it. Once again, not my problem. I don’t know anyone that is ignorant enough to take a personal check from someone they don’t know. This is about the time he blocked my emails.

He did then send me a letter which was postmarked for January 4, 2007, but was dated November 18, 2006. He told me in the letter that he was going to court over the bad check on December 5, 2006 and would start sending me $55 a week on December 15, 2006 until the $200 was paid back. He then told me that I could send him back the Jag Sibling and after he received it, he would refund the money for it…. I told him, in the letter I replied with, not to worry about the Jag Sibling and I would cut my losses. Actually, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice. I also told him in the letter that I would be willing to take a trade for the snake I sent him. I never got a response to that letter, it was sent on January 10, 2007.

I replied with that letter, and I have also since sent him an email from a yahoo account that he did not block (he blocked my main email account only), and I got nothing in return. Although he has told me, while he was returning my emails, that he couldn’t afford to send the $200 out of his pocket….. He was able to purchase what looks to be an adult Green Tree Python.

Although making this post won’t get my $200 back, maybe it will save someone else from Brian’s ‘Make friends and BAIL’ stunt. I know for a fact that I am not the only person that he has pulled this on, hopefully some of the others will come forward now.

Kyle Harper

Do you have any copies of the emails sent/received? Any scanned copies of letters, etc would help out here alot.

I can scan the letter from him along with the envelope it was sent in with the postage date. I can also get the file off my old harddrive with the letter I sent back to him on January 10th, but I haven't been able to recover any of my emails from that hard drive. I had to set it up as a slave drive on my computer at work and my outlook express will only open to my emails from my work account. I will see if there is something I can do to get the emails, but don't count on it, I am definitly far from an expert when it comes to things like that.

When I contacted Brian via my Yahoo mail account, I told him I was going to be posting here and he still did not respond. I will see if that email is saved and if it is I will post it. All emails that I sent from my primary home email account were returned by the mail delivery system

Here are the contents of the emails from my Yahoo account. I can print them and scan them if needed, these are just copy and paste for now:

Date: Fri, 23 Mar 2007 19:10:24 -0700 (PDT)
From: "kyle harper" <kyleharper02@yahoo.com> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: pythons@absinthemenagerie.com
Brian,
I have yet to hear back from you since I replied to your letter, on January
8th. I attached a copy in case you are going to claim that you did not
recieve it.

I have also spoken with (unnamed person), I know your email is working. I hope
we can come to an agreement to solve this debt.

Well, I tried to send this with my other email account, I guess if this goes through than you have blocked that account.

Thanks,

Kyle Harper



January 8, 2007

Brian,

I am wondering why your letter is dated for November 18, 2006 and the
postage date is January 4, 2007?

I would like to clear one thing up before I reply to your letter. My mother
never contacted you or Shawn. She did not and still does not have access to
your name, phone number or email address. Nor did she know about any
transactions between you and I. If you are going to make false accusations
please just forward me the money you owe me for the snake and we can go our
separate ways.

Now, onto the Jaguar Normal Sibling. I never asked for a replacement snake
or a refund. Those were both solutions that you offered for the original
mis-sexed snake. As soon as I received the replacement snake I probed it.
The probe went to a depth of 10 sub-caudal scales on both hemipenal
cavities. I then contacted you to tell you that the replacement snake was
also a male. You then offered to refund me the $130.00 I paid for the
original one.

I don't know who probed the replacement snake for you, but it is apparent
that they were inexperienced. Also, I am assuming that the person whom told
you that I probably punctured the membrane in the hemipenal cavity is one of
the persons whom probed the snake for you and they are trying to cover for a
mistake on their part. The fact of the matter is that I have been sexing
snakes for the better part of 10 years. It is difficult to push a blunt
object, such as a sexing probe, through the membrane and there would also be
obvious bleeding, which there was not at the time I probed the replacement
snake. There are a number of things that can happen that can lead to a
mis-sexed snake. First being, most inexperienced people will use the largest
probe possible, in fear of puncturing the membrane in the hemipenal cavity.
The problem that arises from this is, the hemipenal cavities are tapered,
starting out wide at the top and tapering off as they protrude into the
tail. Using a probe that is too large will result in an inaccurate
sub-caudal count because it will not go as deep as a properly sized probe.
The second thing that is not a problem with all snakes, but is with carpet
pythons is that they have a prehensile tail, which is hard to hold straight.
If the person probing the snake doesn't hold the tail straight as they are
inserting the probe they will not get an accurate reading, because the probe
will not go to the bottom of the hemipenal cavity. The last problem, which
is probably the case in this situation, is that inexperienced people
sometimes cannot even find the entrance to the cavity. They will stick the
probe in and think it went into the cavity and it in fact did not, this
leads them to think the snake is a female. These would all be cases that a
male would be mistaken for a female, being that males probe 10-15 sub-caudal
scales and females probe 3-6 sub-caudal scales.

Regardless of what you and your associates think of my knowledge of sexing
snakes, I know what I am doing.

Lets just forget that the transaction for the Jag Sibling even happened and
I will take the fall for it. The reason I did not probe the original snake
until later on is that I trusted that Jesse had sexed them correctly. I will
just keep what I have and we will forget about any reimbursement for it.

Onto the snake I sent to you before receiving payment. You told me numerous
times on numerous occasions that you were sending the money, I still have
yet to see any. In your letter you stated that you would be sending me a
payment on 12/15, which I still have not received. I wrote you an email
telling you that I would be willing to take a trade or payments, you never
replied. Now I receive a letter today from you, telling me that you are
going to start sending me payments. You also stated in your letter that you
were supposed to go to court, on 12/5, for the bad check the person paid you
with, for a snake that you never paid me for. It was not my problem that you
accepted a check from someone that you didn't know, so I do not understand
why I am still waiting for my money, 2 months later.

What is going to be done to straighten this out?

Please respond to this letter asap so I know what is going on. Like I said
above, I might be willing to take a trade as payment for the snake you sold.
I am also willing to pay shipping, which I will arrange via fed ex. The only
snake I know of that you currently have that I would be willing to take as
payment would be the female Queensland carpet, Merimbula . Whatever you
decide to pay me with please let me know in your next letter.

I will be looking forward to your reply

Thanks,









Kyle Harper




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sucker-punch spam with award-winning protection.
Try the free Yahoo! Mail Beta.





Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2007 10:04:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: "kyle harper" <kyleharper02@yahoo.com> Add to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: pythons@absinthemenagerie.com
Brian,
Well I guess its pretty easy to tell that you have blocked my other email account.

If you don't respond to my letter that I sent last night from this account, by Friday March 30th I am going to go ahead and start to let everyone know exactly what you did to decieve me. I will be making a post on Fuanaclassifieds and Morelia Pythons. I will be telling the ENTIRE story.

I am not asking you to send me the money by the 30th. I just want you to act like an adult and take responsibility for your debt.

I also have you letter sitting here in front of me. It is dated November 28th, but the postage date on the envelope is dated January 4th. I also have it saved in my computer that my letter to you was created on January 8th and last modified on January 15th.

Kyle Harper


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go
with Yahoo! Mail for Mobile. Get started.


In the attached letter it mentions my mother. Brian claimed that my mother called his house and left a message on his machine. I think I am old enough that I would not need my mother's assistance on a problem such as this one.

Just another one of his lies......

I will try to get the letter scanned this weekend, but if not I will get it done before next weekend. I really don't have as much time to do these things as I used to. That is why it has taken so long for me to make this post. I will try to check this as often as possible though.

Thanks,
Kyle Harper

Here is the letters from Brian along with the envelope it was sent it.

Now that Brian has found out about this thread he is spreading rumors about me selling him a snake that was burnt badly and it died on him. This is a complete lie. I aquired a female Coastal Carpet Python that was badly burned, a year prior to me getting her. I told him about the snake and that I felt bad that I couldn't give her injury more attention. He offered to take her and take care of her because he was retired and at home all day long. I paid for the snake and I paid for it to be shipped to him. He never paid anything for that snake. He also gave me a run around about how after talking with 4 different herp veterinarians that none of them would see the snake.

He is also now saying that he and I had an agreement about the $200 which we did not. He said that the person that purchased her (the snake he owes me $200 for) was holding payment until the snake would eat. Considering it would eat anything while it was in my care, she was fine. Also, considering he had the snake for a week, at least, it was out of my guarrentee time frame and he should take responsibility for a snake that he sells. I have no idea how that snake was set-up, cared for or what she was being fed and how often.
In his letter below you will notice that he condradicts himself on the story about the $200 I am owed from him. If I can get permission to post the emails he sent to another person he pulled this stunt with then I will do so. All of the above is included in those emails, as well as him saying that I never wrote him back via snail mail. Now I wish I would have sent it UPS so I would have a signature confirmation. I did however post proof above in a previous post that he was emailed the letter on March 23, 2007. I also can get proof that he returned other peoples emails before and after that date so he got it.

Sorry, I had to blurr out some of the personal information about him in the second page.

Kyle have you sent him a link to this thread??
Sorry something like this happened to ya buddy...Randy

I didn't personally, but he knows it is here. I know a friend of mine that he pulled the same stunt on that sent him a link.