I've Been SCREWED by Mike Schellenback of OHIO!!!

Ahhhh, this is a great one. Here goes.
Guys name and address:
Mike Schellenbach
10303 Richland Ave.
Garfield Heights, Ohio
44125

Heres the story(and please help if you can)
OK, I placed an add a few days back about my CBB male sorong for sale or trade. I was looking for things like super tiger retics and such. Oh well, heres a copy of the add.

This guy was produced by Ryan Blanton, House of Chondros, in 2000 and we purchased from him in Jan of 2002.This male is 100% flawless and feeds ferociously on f/t small rats whenever you offer. He is an amazing animal ready for your girls NOW!! I paid $900 for him($1800 male female pair) back when he was about 14 mos. of age. He is now over 2 years of age and a dynamite guy and not to mention he is KITTEN TAME!!!!
Here is what I’m seeking for him.
#1- $875 OBO and I will throw in FREE DASH shipping,
#2- Trade straight accross for an exceptional 8 ft+ male SUPER tiger Retic
#3- trade/partial trade for interesting Ball Pythons. No Normals, possibly a sub adult het for albino female or?????

E-mail or call if interested!
Thanks!
Kolleen Jenks


Anyway, I came down with killer bronchitis, which I am still dealing with, and got a call that same day. He told me his name and what he had to offer. I told him to call back till I talked to my husband about it cuz the chondro was his snake. Anyway, he told me he has a yearling pair of hetero for albino balls produced by Hanelys herps(which Im checking into right now). He sounded really nice on the phone, called me about a million times and was such a nice guy. He told me he had papers he would send with them(which he did). We decided you can never have enough balls so why not. We BOTH shipped out that same day. The snakes arrived well packaged and OK, so I placed them in a rack in quarantine until my husband got home because I didnt want to handle them being sick and all. When he got home he pulled them out and saw dead mites(I treated them with blackknight as I do all my new arrivals) which hey, it happens to the best of us, so that didnt worry us too much. Later that night, we did night rounds and decided to check on them. The pair consisted of a aprox 500 gram ball and a 250 gram ball. We assumed the female was the larger one of the two. Just for fun, I wanted to check the male for sperm plugs. The male popped as the female and visa versa, and thats when I became susspicious. There was NO WAY a supposed year old(14 mos according to the papers) female was only 250 grams. I decieded I was gonna call Mike this morning and tell him I wanted to trade back. It was only 24 hours since the trade and I figured within that time, he should be fine with this. Well, FAKE PHONE # and here we are!!!


Help!!

Sorry, got ahead of my self!
Kolleen Jenks
801-641-2513

Kolleen,

Sorry to say this, but I searched the white pages (on two different services) and found no listings for Schellenbach anywhere in the State. However, since you shipped your husband's snake to an actual address, one supposes there has to be SOMEONE living there in Garfield Heights, OH, even if his name isn't the same one he gave you.

I would suggest reporting this incident to the Internet Fraud Division of the FBI, giving them as much detail as is possible. I would also file reports with your local authorities and with the authorities in Garfield Heights (assuming that is where you shipped your snake). Detail is key when talking to these people not only in allowing them to be more successful in their investigation, but also to show them that you are not some nut job seeking revenge for a deal gone bad (but not illegal). They will respond if you are professional to them.

One last thing I have to point out, before Neil does. Never ever ship your snakes until you've had a chance to see what you're trading for! This guy initiated the trade, and so it was hisresponsibility to ship first. THEN, after having examined his animals thoroughly, you could have decided whether to ship yours or his back to him. Unfortunately, you've learned an expensive lesson for all of us. I'm really sorry you and your husband are in this situation!

I know I know(hanging head in shame) this is the first and ONLY time I will ever get screwed in a trade.
This is what I get for having the smallest amount of faith in humanity, huh??

The poackage was shipped from Brooklyn Heights Ohio if this helps and for the record.

Kolleen Jenks

Do you have the whole return address from the package. Is it the same as you shipped to?

This may be barking up the wrong tree, but if not here you go....

I found a MC Schellenbach in Hamilton, OH which is VERY close to the addy you gave, which was probably a friend of his. Here is his info:

M.C. Schellenbach
1205 Southern Hills Rd.
Hamilton, OH 45013

Ph#513-895-3283

Maybe this will help. Best of luck

Jesse Van Atta

Good job, Jesse!

I tried two different white pages search engines, and neither of them showed any Schellenbach listed in Ohio. Just goes to show you that there are still potholes in the information super-highway!

Kolleen-

I can't really be of any help to you here (I wish i could!) but I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am that this has happened to you. I can relate because I had an almost identical situaltion happen to me back in 1999, traded a guy thousands of dollars worth of high end leopard geckos for what was supposed to be 1.1 het albino ball pythons. He had what appeared to be good paperwork on them but after making a few phone calls I found out he had created the invoice on his own computer! Luckily for me this was a local guy and I was able to track him down easily and get most of my leopard geckos back and also get him back for what he did to me (that is another story, LOL). I know that the thing that bothered me the most when it happened to me was the thought of my beautiful, sweet leopard geckos being in the care of that sleezebucket. I'm sure you feel the same way about your chondro.

I must admit i was naive back then about the amount of criminals in the repile hobby but one good thing that came out of the experience was this: I will never again buy/trade for hets of any kind from anyone other than the person who produced them or a trusted colleage in the business.

Kolleen I hope you can find this guy and get your snake back. There has to be at least one other person that has dealt with him and perhaps will recognize his address. Don't give up hope!

franklinedwards60 Do you have the whole return address from the package. Is it the same as you shipped to?

It is the same address.

Here is the tracking# throgh fed-ex for the snakes HE sent me.837631005691

And here is the one I gave him for the snake I sent him through Airborne Express.-6138729262

Kolleen Jenks