Evan Stahl Please pay me.

You are right, I don't need the money but this is a poor excuse for not paying. Do you check peoples finances to determine whether you pay them?
If you feel I am going to use that $285.00 for immoral purposes, I might.
In my lifetime I spent most my money on liquer and women.................. The rest I just wasted.
The date this was due is March 03 Don't incany interest you can send that to your church.
Lee Watson

What's going on?If your calling Evan out,explain.

Slow down there for a second Lee. What does Evan owe you for? Can you back up this claim with emails or any correspondence? If you need the money or not is of no concern to me, however an explanation would be nice......care to share???????

Lee Watson called me and told me that he wanted to sell me a "baby" crocodile monitor. I immediately asked him how large it was as so many people call them babies when they are in fact quite large. So I told him that I would take a look at it when I came to his next show the following weekend (I used to be a vendor at many of his shows).

When I got to the show Lee showed me the animal and as I thought the case may be, it was very far from a baby and was in fact a large juvenile. Many months of size difference. Babies sell well and I had a customer for one, as I told Lee, this animal was too large to call a baby many many times over and I would see if he wanted it but did not think he would. I also told Lee that I would not pay nearly as much for the animal as it was not as described. At the time babies were selling for $1000 each, while animals the size of that one were worth half that.

I took the animal and tried to sell it. As I had predicted, it was way too big for anyone that wanted a baby and I had a tough time getting rid of it. I told Lee I wanted to bring it back to him as my buyers did not want it. He told me to keep it and we would figure it out later. I had given him the bulk of his price up front. As I told him when he gave me the animal, again when I could not initially sell it and then again when I called him a few weeks later, I needed to pay the juvenile price for the juvenile and not the baby price. Before it had been "we will figure it out", now it was "you owe me money". The animal sat at my house for 2 years. I finally gave it to my friend Tony in Detroit in trade, for a loss. Anyway, I talked to Lee on the phone quite often and informed him that we had a couple problems.

1) While he was telling me it was ok and "we will figure it out" I was getting piles of calls and emails from people I knew telling me that Lee was running around behind my back, telling people I was a thief, liar, etc., for not paying him the $285 he thought I owed him. That was news to me. When I confronted him with what he had said, he of course said that he just made comments in passing to people about it. Which still was not cool with me. Keep in mind that for many many years I defended Lee and his show on the internet while it was getting blasted for being a filthy barn with a dirt parking lot. For having many vendors with sick and mite covered animals. For having vendors that were convicted drug dealers and poachers. I also bought many cages and animals from Lee over the years and never had a problem.

But Lee talks about everyone behind their backs. He is the only good show promoter if you ask him. Over the years he has gone very far out of his way to bad mouth and blackball other show promoters. Telling me how bad my firends shows were run and that his was much better and he could not figure out why they were still in business.

2) Lee vouched for a regular of his named John Urban, who had bought a couple animals from me. While I was still doing his show, with Lee's approval I gave John a reticulated python on credit that he still owes me $800 for to this day. When he came back to Lee's shows and did not pay me for it, Lee told me he would help me collect it. Until I was told by several people there at the show at the time that Lee told John not to give me a cent and that he would just keep it. That was really nice. I won't even go into details about the kid that Lee let steal an albino burm from me and then Lee walked over and told me that the kid had just walked out right past him when I was trying to find the snake. He laughed about it and thought it was really funny. This all took place before the monitor deal and were still problems I wanted resolved.

I stopped doing Lee's shows when the local, state and federal authorites raided Lee's show and found that he was allowing vendors to break piles of laws and ordinances at the show. I had to sit there all day and could not sell anything. Then pack up and go home. 9 hours driving and all that work for nothing.

I owe you nothing Lee. You lied to me. You helped people steal from me. You cost me money in lost sales. You have slandered me for years thinking that people would not tell me what you were saying. You are classless and you have lost your show because you arrogantly allowed people to break the laws at your show because you bragged about having enough money and influence in your municipality that you could do what want. Now your show is yet another black eye on this business. Do you still sell venomous animals and native animals out of your house?

What's that move wrestlers do when an opponent has hold of them and they turn around and flip the guy on his back? I think I just saw the BOI version of it here.

This thread may as well be in a reptile soap opera.

The issue of Lee Watson's show being in violation of laws is irrelevant to this thread, But if it were relevant, what were you doing selling there Evan? The show was good enough for you to peddle your wares for years and now all that time it was a piece of crap? And if you believed that venomous animals were strictly illegal in his state, why were you buying them from him? That reminds me of the scene from the movie Casablanca where the chief of police is "shocked" to find out that gambling is going on in Rick's Cafe, and then is handed his winnings. You can't have it both ways. If one is going to take the high road then one needs to take the high road.

Originally Posted by evansnakes

Lee Watson called me and told me that he wanted to sell me a "baby" crocodile monitor. I immediately asked him how large it was as so many people call them babies when they are in fact quite large. So I told him that I would take a look at it when I came to his next show the following weekend (I used to be a vendor at many of his shows).

When I got to the show Lee showed me the animal and as I thought the case may be, it was very far from a baby and was in fact a large juvenile. Many months of size difference. Babies sell well and I had a customer for one, as I told Lee, this animal was too large to call a baby many many times over and I would see if he wanted it but did not think he would. I also told Lee that I would not pay nearly as much for the animal as it was not as described. At the time babies were selling for $1000 each, while animals the size of that one were worth half that.

But you took the animal voluntarily (or did he have a gun to your head?), paid him $115 and to date have not paid the balance. A deal is a deal. If you thought the animal was worth half of $1000, or $500, then buying it for $400 and making a 25% profit is not a bad deal. You gambled and lost. That doesn't change your obligation to pay what you owe.

Originally Posted by evansnakes

Lee vouched for his friend and then saw to it that I did not get paid. He aided somebody to steal from me. I know that for a fact. He then told me he would get me the money and when the guy came to the show, Lee told him "don't worry about it." He is a liar.

Evan, you may be pretty well respected here, but even you need to provide some "proof" of this. Otherwise it's libelous. Care to enlighten the rest of us on how you "know that for a fact"?


And Lee, this is three years old. What have you done to collect during this time? Why bring it here now?


Bottom line. Here's another situation that should not have come to the BOI. Maybe the two parties ought to get together over the phone and settle this like grown men.

Damn!!! His show was nasty, I am glad it was shut down.....

Originally Posted by bbbxcursion

Damn!!! His show was nasty, I am glad it was shut down.....

His show still exist but it is now in Wheaton Illinois.It is "run" by someone else but Lee is still involved.Even i am sorry you have been treated the way you have been treated by Lee.I will vouch for everything mentioned about that Streamwood scum fest to be totally the full truth.Hey Lee do you have any black mambas for sell? Or any endangered reptiles? I can not wait for your come back to all this thats posted here .I also could care less if you post that you do not like me or give me negative rep points.Do you know why i could care less what you have to say or do? Just like i told you to your face at the last show i attended at Streamwood a couple years back YOU ARE SCUM and you should not be allowed to even think about reptiles .Just like Even said you think you are a bigshot who has all this money .When infact i was told you lost everything you owned due to high lawyer bills from the multiple arrests for selling illegal and endangered reptiles out of your home! Thats why your show was moved

You have completely missed your calling in life. I truely feel sorry for you that you have to make up stories to avoid obligations. Have you ever considered printing your fiction? I'm not going to get involved in defending myself against he said she said. Your whole answer starts out as lies, I couldn't have called you cause I purchased the monitor at my show that morning. You came to my table, saw the monitorand said I need that. I told you I had just paid $400 If I didn't get more by the end of the show you could have it for that. By the way I don't sell venomous or indiginous out of my home, Although I am Licensed with Illinois and APHIS to do so. I think the last venomous I sold was the 3 Albino rattlesnakes You didn't pay me for cause they died 30 to 90 days later. Because of my not getting paid for them was the reason I said cash is the word NO credit. When you went to my table and handed my wife $115 and told her that was our agreement you were stealing. When I got back to my table I was furious and ran outside . You were gone.

By the way my show was shut down for emminate domaine. And then the best offer I could get was $200,000 per acre. That figures I got a million dollars just for my mud parking lot. I ran 24 shows a year with an average of
960 people thru the door. We averaged 1 DNR raid every 15 years with 16 misdemener tickets. These are facts not fiction like deadbeats would have you believe.

Lee Watson

Originally Posted by Lee Watson

I ran 24 shows a year with an average of
960 people thru the door. We averaged 1 DNR raid every 15 years with 16 misdemener tickets. These are facts not fiction like deadbeats would have you believe. Lee Watson

Lee, with all due respect, if you are going to make statements of fact, like you did above, then please make them harder to validate then this. Case in point:

Originally Posted by Daily Herald

Arrests Made at Reptile Show in Illinois
Law enforcement officials from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the Food and Drug Administration, the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had been conducting a yearlong investigation into illegal reptile trade that climaxed at a “reptile swap” in mid September. Despite the raid, Lee Watson’s farm in Streamwood, the site of the swap for 12 years, has not been shut down. Some of the vendors were conducting legal trade, however, many were buying and selling protected species, unlicensed animals and undersized turtles. Illinois Conservation Police Investigator Michael Lyne said one man had more than 600 undersized turtles and was charged with “not having a license, not keeping records, commercialization of the resources and being over the limit. He was the worst in the number of turtles – but there were many others.” Lyne said that there is a 400 percent mark-up on baby turtles, which makes them a profitable venture. Fourteen vendors at the show were arrested, at least three more arrests are pending and 37 misdemeanor citations were issued. Source: Daily Herald, September 17, 2002."

At his one raid alone you had 37 citations written. Then you have this which occurred 8 years before the one above in which 40 citations were issued:

Originally Posted by EB

The Streamwood, IL Reptile Swap held monthly on the farm of long-time member Lee Watson was featured in a front page Chicago Tribune article on June 22, 1994. After detailing the hot market for exotic animals, the article stated that law-enforcement agents say that swaps are "the next phase of our investigation." They feel that there is an underground network of illicit animal traders. Last year 22 reptile vendors were charged with more than 40 violations, although most were misdemeanors. Fines ranged from $50 to $900 and one case remains to be settled. Watson was quoted "I though it was all a lot of bunk. That was the biggest travesty of justice I've ever seen." Enforcement agents felt they "could only scratch the surface in the six or seven months [they] were there." In addition a Department of Conservation official said that reptile trading in Streamwood is not currently being conducted because they were forced to turn to other cases. (Note: The Streamwood Swap Meet is not sponsored by or connected with the CHS in any way except that a lot of our members attend. EB)

And I am sure this is just scratching the surface.

Griz