Ed Braaten (Thomison) Flying W Reptiles

Ed B called me back tonight and told me some of his side, he sent me 3 of the 25 phone messages that were sent to his house, I can say with confidence the police wanted Jody off the streets, in the 3 messages he did not sound well. I want to hear both sides here on this forum before taking sides.

Messages.

I left some pretty nasty messages on his phone. If you do someone nasty, expect to get done nasty. How did he defend the $700? Words are one thing, screwing someone else is another.

If you doubt my side of the story, think about this. If I was the one in the wrong, why didn't he drive 500 miiles this way? Would you trade a breeder cinny pastel and a 400g mojave for 3 bably lemon pastel females? Don't think so. I think he has no reason to complain about this, he is totally in the wrong.

More details

When I shipped the animals to Ed, I called him the next day to see if the animals arrived safely. FedEx did not get the animals delivered on time due to a driver being sick. That afternoon, Ed called me and said the snakes had been delivered and were dead. I was crushed, as this hobby is not about money to me, but about my animals and their health and well being and the quality of my husbandry. Ed then began laughing and said he was just joking. I don't know about anyone here, but I won't sell my animals who will not take care of them, even if they have 10k cash in hand. When I received his shipment and told him there was no check in the box, he thaought I was kidding him because of the "joke" about the snakes being dead. I told him I wouldn't participate in those kind of "jokes."

After Ed told me that he went to the bank to get the check cancelled and it would take 10 days to get it right, I told him that I understand things happen. The only thing I asked him to do was to check with the bank each day, and to give me a quick phone call to let me know the status of payment. Ed called me the first couple of days and then quit maintaining contact with me. I sent Ed the following email after the 10 days went by.

I have waited long enough for this deal to go through. You said you would call Thursday, and then you still had not as of Friday. I have left multiple messages with you, and you have not returned my calls. As far as I am concerned, our deal is off. I think what needs to happen is that you need to ship my animals back to me, and I will ship your pastels back. They suck as far as quality goes. I have also figured out that you have violated the kingsnake.com terms of service by having two accounts. Do you remember the offer for the pied male and het female. Yeah I do, because that was me trying to see how shady you were being. If I do not hear from you by Monday night, I will drive to Rose Hill on Tuesday and bring your animals back, and get my animals back. I will come with a police escort as a civil standby to make sure I get done what I need to get done. I was a police officer for 7 years, and I know how to handle situations like these. I have also reported your double account holder status to kingsnake.com, and they forwarded me contact for the interstate commerce fraud division of the FBI to file charges for mail fraud if I don't get this situation resolved to my satisfaction.

It is high time that you get something done, before you get done in the snake business before you ever get started. I doubt there was ever even a check from Bank of America, but I don't care now. I want my snakes, and you can have yours.

I thought you were so concerned abot being had in a snake deal, and I tried to do you right. I will never trust anyone like that again because you are trying to break it off in my rear end (other word used in original email). I suggest you call me ASAP dude.

Thanks,
Jody Barnes
806-445-1061
806-773-6643

I never got a response. I continued to try to call him, usually about 10-10:30 pm every night. He would send me messages like on 9-17-2007 saying go to bed freak. and on 9-18-2007 saying he acquired a fire x butter and a pied. I told him I was going to post the story of this incident and he would be ruined in the snake business. He text messaged me back saying "why should I be worried about a crazy guy like you?" On Monday before I went to Kansas, I tried multiple times to call him. He didn't answer and I left some messages threatening him that were pretty nasty. It has been a month, and I don't remember exactly what I said. I know that I said some things that I shouldn't have. Regardless, I have still been screwed by him. After I returned from Kansas, this is the email he sent me.

Jody (if thats your real name),

I am not going to call names or play your game. You have some real issues that you need to work out in your life. I was in bed sick with a sinus infection all weekend and just now checked my messages. The threats on my life was really strange. I am sure you have your problems, as I do. But you need to talk to someone. I played the messages you left for me for Deputy Gurley tonight and he was amazed. Anyway. Maybe we can work a deal again someday. I was even ready to try to help you today, but when you threatened me...everything changed for me. Threats on my life are not ok. First off...I filed charges against you today, It doesnt matter anyway...its only a misdemeaner, against you and it doesnt matter to me, Its your problem for threatenting my life, you just cant come back to Kansas again without getting arrested. I am sure you have had hard times, as we all have, but dont take it out on me. Second. you screwed me on kingsnake. You didnt have to do that. But you did. Maybe you can make that right, but i doubt it because of your personality. I will send them all the voice mails you left telling me you were going to kill me, if that is what it takes. Have a good life...A litte bit of advice, Live right and life will treat you right. Think about that.

As I said, I was wrong for saying the things I said. I sent him this letter of apology.

Why do you not respond to me? I do not see why you think you have done nothing wrong in this situation. You need to realize that all of this began because you screwed me on a snake deal. It is hight time you stopped talking out of both sides of your mouth. If you want to do what is right in life, so life will treat you right, take this advice and call me or email back. Ed, I am not waiting any longer for this transaction to be completed. One other thing I wanted to address is my eventual return to Kansas. I can take care of those charges and return to Kansas whenever I please. There is no open ended warrant that states that I may never return to Kansas, as that would violate my constitutional rights. I do not have any intention of coming to Rose Hill, but I am sure that I will someday be back in Kansas for something.

You need to call or email me ASAP. The only thing I want to hear from you is when you are shipping the snake, which I have offerred to pay for the shipping, and the tracking number of the package. Ed, I have left a message of apology with you, and expect you to be a man about this deal. I admitted where I was wrong, and you need to do the same thing. If I have no response from you by 4:30 tomorrow, I will file a lawsuit for the following damages.

$700 snake
$243.58 for gas to come look for the animal
$48.99 for motel to sleep in
$1129.78 the profit my business would have made if I could have been in town to sell a putting green installation.
$??? court costs
$31.27 for food while on the trip
------------------------------------------------
TOTAL $1906.64
+ court costs approx. $80

I don't think you have $2k to spend on a mojave. When a case is filed against you in small calims court in TX, you do not get to have a lawyer. You are required to defend yourself. If a judgement is placed against you, and you do not pay that judgement, the court will garnish your wages or seize property to pay the debt. I do not want to go through this, as it will cost me more time away from work, and I don't have that kind of time. I know sinus infections suck, but my wife worked all last week with one, and played in a double header softball game while running a fever. I think you can get up and get this little situation took care of. Plus, you said you would call me last Thursday, and you didn't. You never returned messages left for you on Friday, or Saturday. That was three whole days before you got sick. Ed, please do what is right. I don't know what else to say.

Again, what I said is inexcusable, but the officer didn't think it was that bad because I called him back the next day and he said no charges would be filed against me. If they were, I was going to take care of them and be a man about it. If the officer didn't think they were bad enough to file charges, then it wasn't that bad. I am not covering up what I said in the messages. Like I said, it was inexcusable and shouldn't have been done. I was tired of being antagonized by him.

The bottom line is this, Ed still owes me money or the snake. I offered to pay for the shipping for him to send the animal back. I also offered him in a phone message to post here that he had taken care of the situation, and he refused to respond.

I have heard that Ed wants to respond on here about the messages I left. The deal is this, the messages are words, and I didn't do what I threatened. They were only an attempt to try to get a response from him, but like everything else I tried, he just ignored me. The messages are secondary and none of this would have ever taken place. I guess if you make a bed and have to lay in it, you better make it comfortable. He owes me the money or the snake and that is the final issue here. Is he going to do what is right in life so life will treat him right? I will keep you updated.

Thanks,
Jody Barnes

I understand where this gets frustrating, and how you wouldn't have left those messages if he would have done what he was supposed to right away. However, you may have shot yourself in the foot by leaving those messages. They do not make him want to do right by you, and if he plays them in the court proceedings, it may take away from your credibility.

I agree

I do have anger issues at times when I get screwed over. That doesn't make what I did right. However, I have just been advised of the another situation that he is involved in and that would give me more credibility in the same type of situation. He may be fixing to get another bad guy post here on the BOI if the other person feels so inclined. I have also heard that he is going to be posting in reply to this very soon, so we shall see. I wanted to be honest about the phone calls so that it doesn't appear that I have anything to hide. The bottom line remains, either he needs to send the snake or a check yesterday.

No Ed yet!! Hate to say it but, not looking good for him. Jody if you could convince this other person to come forward I would sure like to hear what went down with this deal.

He asked me about posting here.

Another person that Ed has screwed over, but after talking to him I advised him not to post here because it wasn't animal related. He knew Ed was into snakes and was looking here and on k-snake to see if he could find any info on him. When he sent me a PM, I was under the impression that it was a snake deal, but it turned out not to be.

HMMMMMMMM............

I talked to the ex husband of Ed's fiancee yesterday. When he went to get the kids for visitation this weekend, Ed had his incubator on a trailer. He said they were delivering it to Wichita, KS because he sold it. I know that Ed has at least enough money to ship the snake back to me. I called and left him a message stating that if he would ship the snake back to me, I would send him a money order for the shipping so that he wouldn't be out any money.

still nothing

I know Ed is now working at a good job. He still refuses to answer my calls. Ed promised another poster here that he was going to make good on the situation, and that proves that he knows he is wrong. I hope he settles this matter soon.

royalkreationz said:

I have filed a civil suit against him in TX. As per our law, if he does not show, I will win by default. I am not suing for the money, but for the possession of the snake. I know he doesn't have the money, but he does have the snake. After the judgement, if he does not ship the snake, he will be held in contempt of court. If that doesn't work, I will file the same thing in his county in KS. I will do the same thing there where he will be required to appear with the snake. If he looses, I get the snake. I am also stipulating that if he does not have the snake, that I get the money. I am also suing for my time away from work, expenses incurred on the trip, ond court costs.

Click to expand...

What was the outcome of this in court or is it still a pending case?

they haven't served the papers yet

I had filed it in texas and then they called me back, gave me my money back, and told me i had to file it where the defendant lived. I am waiting now they said about 12 weeks from the time papers are served.

First let me apologize for asking my previous question. I just read your feelings regarding people not directly scammed by the defendant commenting on the case at hand.
Since I have not been scammed by Ed Braaten I’ll withhold comment about his dealings and wish you good luck in the Kansas Courts. I hope that they do not allow your threatening phone calls and personal appearance to be introduced into the issue.

Here is the deal

I don't see anything wrong with showing up at his house. I was nothing but polite while I was there. He was scared of me because he knew he wronged me and knew what he deserved.

As far as what I said about others commenting, I guess I didn't make myself clear. I don't think the person who was not involved in the deal should have started the thread. But you are a bad and I can tell that.

If you want to be a smart find someone else. I think you can tell by the way I handle business that I don't cut for no bull .

Jody- I don't mean this in offensive way but in these days many States have Castle Doctrine laws.When you make a couple of threatening phone calls to someone and then show up at his house you have pretty much dotted his i's and crossed all his t's for him.Things probably won't go so well for you if you keep trying to handle things in the manner of Woodrow Call. I believe that you have been wronged by this man and that you find this to be unacceptable. I only suggest that it will work out better for you to try to exercise a little more restraint including with the people posting on this thread. If you convince everyone that you are a hothead you are not likely to gain empathy from from either the court or from people reading this thread.For what it's worth, that's how I see it.

This is how I see it.

The calls were not very harsh because the officer did not think they were bad enough to file charges. I am not a hot head. I Have not called Ed with a "threatening" call since back when I did it the first time. I have called and left messages offering to pay for the shipping of the animal back to me so that he can ge the deal square. Other than that I have not called him for any reason and I haven't even done that in over a month. I don't think that phone calls are pertinent to the facts of the transaction, but were simply what the result of him playing dirty is.

I can say this, I didn't ask anyone to come on here with a smart comment. I don't know where you come from or how you were raised, but I was raised that if someone screws you over to comfront them face to face. That is what I did to Ed before I ever posted anything here. I was very nice to him at his residence and even spent some time talking to his mother in law and we had no problems what so ever.

I can tell you this, the internet is very anonymous and anything can be said here about anybody with virtually no consequences. But, as far as I am concerned, if the situation gets serious enough that there is no road long enough to prevent a face to face meeting and a chance to take care of the problem like men. I proved, before I ever said anything, how I counduct business. I also proved that if I say I am going to do something, I do it and you can take that to the bank. I am a very honest person and the nicest person you will ever meet if you are the same way to me. But, cross me and you have the worst enemy that you can find. I am sorry if anyone doesn't like that, but that's how it goes and I don't feel bad about it.

I am not here to make enemies, but I am allowed to state my opinions like everyone else. I did that in the other forum and was not sarcastic, argumentative, or anything else that would lead someone to come here and post like that on this thread.

I will let you know how the court case proceeds. It seems very likely that it will be in Feb before I get to take him to court.

Thank you,
Jody Barnes

response

Hey guys, i finally am able to respond. Its a long story, but I had to make sure i had all my ducks in order. I uploaded 3 messages where he threatened my life, and have about 25 other messages saved...sorry the quality sucks, but a judge saw that it was enough for a restraining order.

I heard from his in-laws that he has a ton of problems. Bi-polar, schitzo. all of the above, he said he was going to sue them over his sons death. I am so sorry about that misfortune. he threatened the life of my wife and kids several times, but i thought it was just "a crazy snake guy", but he has real problems. I wont get into a pissing match with him...If he wants the courts to handle it, i am game. I will post the out come for all to see. Although i cant find where he filed anything in Texas or in Kansas, i will be here to get served. I am just a simple guy with a Hobby. I know there are always 2 sides to every story and i shouldnt have laid low for so long, but i value the life of my wife and kids (all six of them) over my snakes any day of the week. Its not worth the $4k i have lost over the last year in expenses.

I dont think that the music file uploaded...I am on dial up and its 24 MB. can someone tell me how to shrink it. Its a .wav File.
Here is a few things he said verbatum.

in a really weird voice, almost possesed..."Ed, Ed you better call me, HA HA HA. Things could get really bad for your life...I am having crazy thoughts here...I am going to lasso you up haus, get ready cowboy."

And he wonders why i was so nice to him when he showed up. He said the snakes I gave him wouldnt eat. I cant control that, but The Sheriff would have taken him to jail if he would have come back. Anyway, It was just a bad deal for me and no snake is worth the threats on my family.

Ed
[email protected]

Thanks for all your time.

Ed

I notice you conveniently avoided any mention of the $700. Care to comment on that?

I agree, was there a money order? Was there supposed to be a money order, but forgotten? We all know Jody said some things he wishes he could take back, well he can't!! That still doesn't mean if an agreement was made, you should not hold up your end of that agreement. There are a lot of missing pieces in this deal, are there any emails? Something besides he said she said..

Still no answer to the question of the $700. Methinks I hear Mr. Braaten tapdancing his way around a lie.

While I agree that Jodies behaviour was way out of line (the phonecalls) theft is theft, plain and simple.

That Mr Braaten would bother to post here and yet only offer the information that he did is a rather telling circumstance to me. I think that he would like to just put a little spin on the situation while avoiding any facts.