Avangel Reptiles- parasitic reptiles, and more

Originally Posted by nickolasanastasiou

I consider it highly inappropriate and am a little surprised that it has not been commented on a lot more.

Extremely inappropriate, not just because of the business relationship, but because she was 17, legally still a child/minor. There's a line you just don't cross, and he stomped right over it.

Originally Posted by Calyxise

All of that sexual talk to someone you do business with.
That's disgusting.

I just sat and read through all the messages. I agree with you on that. If you want to flirt with a customer, do it after business is all done and you become friends. Otherwise it's super inappropriate. I would be pretty upset if I purchased from a breeder and he started talking like that.

Originally Posted by favrielle

Extremely inappropriate, not just because of the business relationship, but because she was 17, legally still a child/minor. There's a line you just don't cross, and he stomped right over it.

The conversation felt a bit predatory to me.

If a guy is older than a gal and plays the "you sound so mature" card, it is a red flag in many cases.

Not sure about the legality, as different states have different standards for that sort of thing (I think).

Originally Posted by nickolasanastasiou

The conversation felt a bit predatory to me.

If a guy is older than a gal and plays the "you sound so mature" card, it is a red flag in many cases.

Not sure about the legality, as different states have different standards for that sort of thing (I think).

I agree. It sounded creepy. And yes, each state has a different age and I'm not sure he did anything illegal. Just very wrong and inappropriate.

I'm not saying he did something illegal, though with states setting their own age guidelines which vary widely, it's possible. Either way, anyone under 18 is a minor. And I've seen that sort of "conversational grooming" before, firsthand. Red flags everywhere.

Even if she'd been a 20-something year old woman instead of a 17yo girl, the conversation was not professional or appropriate. If a breeder with whom I was doing business started talking to me that way, I'd promptly be adding him/her to my "Do Not Do Business With!" list.

No disagreement here.

Originally Posted by Flashpoint

Additionally, the flip flopping on whether he was a veteran or not is definitely weird to me. He claims to be a vet, then says he isn't, then goes back to saying he is. Flip-flopping should be for shoes and politicians only IMO (haha). I think we all agree with you on your dislike of his use of military service to excuse poor behavior as well.

This smells a little fishy to me too. I couldn't find my husband's DD214 to compare, but I know in the biggest blue spot on the DD214 pictured above is where they write whether you are honorably or dishonorably discharged, medals received, training, etc... So I don't know why that would be blacked out.



I don't know this guy from Adam, and have no clue his discharge circumstances are. I do know that using veteran status as a shield for bad behavior or as a pity party it's generally frowned upon by respectable veterans.



None of that is really the point anyway. There's no excuse for sending out sick animals. A respectable breeder that unintentionally sent out a sick animal, would be shocked, embarrassed and immediately try to make it right. By immediately jumping to damage control, spins and blaming tactics, I personally would assume that the seller knew it was sick when they sent it.

There used to be a special forces guy that came in and had me do work for him. I don't remember exactly what unit he was in but it was something pretty high level. Anyway one day he was at a bar around the corner from where I worked and this guy was telling all kinds of lies about being a war hero and he walked over, tapped the guy on the shoulder, said your a damn liar and knocked him out with one punch lol Sounds like this guy needs the same treatment

Hi, I haven't read every post in this conversation, but knowing Chaz I got the jist of it and I read all the important bits too.

When I saw the screenshots of those inappropriate messages he sent that girl, I started crying because I thought that those were shots of my conversations with him.

I was also a minor, he was 27 and I was 17 when we started talking. He gave me a lot of bad advice on breeding leopard geckos, including that its okay to breed females at 35 grams and that what people don't know won't upset them.
He told me a story about how he once killed one of his leopard geckos by sealing her in a container with rubbing alcohol for an hour and leaving for work.

About his military status, he told me he used to be a soldier and retired early because he sustained a spinal injury. He said he served for 4 years.

He always talked about how much older than me he was and how he was much more experienced than me. Not just in reptiles...

Me and him kinda started dating. He complimented me a lot, often just so I would send him nudes. Remember, I was 17. He also exposed himself to me over skype a few times, and when I told him he was creeping me out and I was going to start dating people for real, he sent me a dick pic, as a final goodbye.

Throughout our relationship, he continuously made plans to meet me in person. He asked me to take a train to Riverside so we could have relations. He sent me pictures of his family, talked about what our babies would look like, it was ridiculous. He always told me exactly what I wanted to hear, and acted self conscious so I would feel bad for him. It worked. I really liked him. But when I thought about the 10 year age difference between us, it began to creep me out and I eventually came to my senses.

But before ending it, a lot of things happened. First was I won his first armion contest, back when it was called avangel powder, and he still made me pay shipping for the product. He, who brags so much about making so many hundreds of dollars off his geckos can't even pay the $6 shipping for his girlfriend. That was the first red flag.

Eventually, when I would ask him for advice on my gecko's health, he would just tell me to use his powder and not to tell anyone they were sick. He said telling people would make people dislike me, and that's why he never posts about his animals being sick. BUT he always wanted me to promote that powder of his, even though it didn't help my geckos improve at all. I am still extremely annoyed at how frequently I see ads for this crud. It's basically just glorified multivitamins + rosemary. It smells horrible.

Anyway, that's my experience with Chaz. He's a cheapo, a pervert, and in my opinion, a very bad and dishonest business person and even worse influence for new breeders.

And this doesn't have much to do with anything, but Chaz and I started dating almost immediately after I got out of an abusive relationship, so I was extremely susceptible to this kind of flirtatious manipulation.

In case you don't believe me about my experience, here are a few things he said to me that might make others shudder.

"You've got a lot to grab on to"
"When I was your age a super hypo cost $200"
"I thought you loved me" via kik after I blocked his number

This was just to add to his character. I don't care if I get more hate mail or attempts to be silenced by him or his "employees" because I finally spoke up.

I'm sorry I don't have screenshots of our conversations. This was a year ago and I have since gotten a new phone and no longer use kik. I could see if the skype messages are still there but its unlikely they will be.

I am sorry to read of your experience, Darien, but it has been brave of you to come forward with your account. I am much dismayed by that kind of behavior.