Please do yourself a big favor and ignore the first reply you got, nor follow others that suggest the same. These may have been well intentioned but they recommend what is very (VERY) likely illegal. That is they recommend, as I understand it, either directly or by implication, that you should not return the animal to someone as irresponsible as the person who left it in the storage container. If this snake belongs to that person, this would very likely be considered larceny or theft. Secondly it sounds to me by what you wrote, that you likely agreed to give the snake back to this person when he lands on his feet again. While you may not have said that to him exactly, you certainly implied such when you agreed to keep it after hearing his story and then told him to call you and gave him your number. While Judge Judy may agree with you that you should keep the snake, a civil court or criminal court (in the real world) probably would not and would find for breach of contract in his favor.
You see, legally and ethically, it is not your decision to make when it comes down to whether or not this animal was abandoned or whether it was mistreated or mis-cared for. If you had strong concerns that any of these were the case then you should have contacted law enforcement authorities and turned the snake over to them or to whomever they directed you.
The first reply poster may not have called the guy a schmuck as someone else said she did, however she certainly implied him, in my opinion, to be something along the lines of a negligent animal keeper. She also said, in essence, that he was irresponsible. Furthermore she said, in essence among - other things, that this person blatantly ignored the needs of the snake. She apparently bases all of this upon your postings and upon her own experience as a responsible animal keeper or so she apparently claims herself to be. I do not doubt she is responsible; however I do doubt that she should have arrived at the conclusions she reached based upon the meager hearsay evidence she was provided. She has no idea what all of the facts were surrounding the circumstances of the snake winding up in the storage shed, except for what you posted. I am not doubting the veracity of what you said, as far as your truthfulness goes, but I do wonder how much of the story given by the down and out fellow is true. I am not really doubtful of his story, I don't know enough to doubt him yet, but it does deserve some investigation.
You see all of it may be true or it may all be horse hockey (as Col. Potter used to say). The guy may be truly down and out, having just fallen on bad times. Maybe he just got divorced, and or lost his job. Maybe he lost everything in the stock market recently. Maybe the news was worse, maybe he just lost his life - do you think he could have just discovered he has AIDS? Maybe the stresses in his life, whatever they may be, have suddenly knocked him down hard. Maybe that snake was the only thing he had that he cared about but just could not deal with it when he left it there. Do you think maybe he could have forgotten to lock the shed because he was stressed out or emotionally unstable at the moment. Why would he leave his other belongings there unattended (you did say the tanks was sitting on other stuff). Is that why the lock was off. Maybe he contemplated committing suicide, and left it open for others to find. Maybe when you called him, you brought him back to reality by showing enough compassion to take care of a snake. Who knows, this is all conjecture.
Now let me play devil's advocate for a moment. Maybe this guy is a junky who lost his family and job because he is no good. Maybe the snake is his and he is just too darned high all the time to take care of it. (Probably not because it looked otherwise well cared for when you found it barring the immediate conditions.) Maybe he is someone who is so down and out that he stole the snake, and not knowing better left it in the shed until he could sell it. Maybe that is why he thinks he can get $250 for it - or maybe he bought it in a pet shop and was ripped off himself. Who knows?<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>??
Do you see a pattern here - either way good or bad. There are a lot of maybes! Until you talk to this guy further you will likely not know. If you see him again ask him all about the snake and how he cared for it. If he does not know squat then you might be able to start thinking that the snake is not his in the first place. If on the other hand he tells you all about how he fed it weekly or every ten days, how much he heated the enclosure, what he used as substrate and on and on, then you could possibly conclude that it may well have been his and he did fall on hard times. Who knows, you may never get the story right as you might not ever hear from him again.
As it stands, you are the caregiver of the snake right now; but if this guy wants it back - you are pretty much legally and ethically on the spot and should return it, unless you get a court decision otherwise while waiting. But if you do return it, don't just return it, question him first to get the story, but be polite. And if you want to buy it, offer him a fair price, if he is down and out he will probably take it, unless of course he really does not want to sell it.
Oh by the way, just one more thing. Someone, I have lost track of who said what, said he broke the rules keeping an animal in the shed. That same person then said, in essence - among other things, he should have kept it in the hotel even if he had to sneak it in because it was against hotel rules. Isn't that a bit hypocritical. Shouldn't he have tried to keep it as best he could by legitimate methods without violating any rules. If you want to say he is guilty because he broke one set of rules, then don't go ahead and say he would have exonerated himself by breaking another set of rules.
Well I do wish you luck. I hope you get to keep the snake if the other guy cannot care for it. I also wish the other guy luck and hope he gets back on his feet and that he gets to keep the snake if that is what makes him happy. If that is the case, then you should be happy to have done a good deed for the time you had the boa.
Just my opinions, not trying to piss anyone off, so please don't get that way. Good luck.
Best regards to all,
Glenn.
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