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Burglary at Jeff Houston's place. Can anyone help?

if this is a scam , someone can call a donater 5 6 months or even a year from now and say

" hey good news they finaly got the guy, well you made a pledege of this amount how about sending it to me now so we can give the reward to the nice guy who turnd in so and so."

i meen everyone who pleged isnt going to ask for police reports and court docs. this can very easly be a scam, just a heads up to all who donated a pledge, make sure this is real before you send out your hard earned money.
 
Vince~ You don't live in the LA basin do you? Well, I do, and as it happens Jeff Houston does too. I don't know Jeff Houston, never met him, but his address is in Anahiem, so he is in the basin.

Last year there was a big debate here. Cops were NOT going to answer alarm calls any longer UNLESS it was a verified break in. In other words~ someone had to KNOW you were being ripped off in order for a police officer to show up. Well, of course that did not pass~ but the reason it was being proposed makes my alarm (And yes I have one) much less valuable than my dog. There are SO many places with alarms in the basin, and SO many false alarms being triggered by animals, faulty equipment, or whatever~ that it is taking the police anywhere from an 45 min to an hour to respond. IF they respond at all. My house is in an "Un-incorporated area" so when my alarm goes off~ my alarm company attempts to contact me. If they can't, they contact the police in Corona (Nearest incorporated area) The police look at my address, and IF they have the available man power they investigate, if not, they call the secuirity service for my association~ and they will respond~ when they have time. We have two officers for the entire area, so it takes a while.

ADT is not fool proof. Especially not here.

So my DOG (85# Boxer) gets run of my house when no one is home, and I set the alarm just for kicks.

It's fine if you don't want to donate to the fund, and it is fine if you have your doubts. Please stop adding insult to injury by implying the man was negligent by not having an alarm which is not much help here.
 
i wasnt aware of the situation in LA. but here someone tryd breaking into my house and the cops came in like 10 min. I have adt and thanks to them not only do i have all my stuff but a couple of punks are in jail for breaking and entering. you never know it might of prevented his loss. its not my intention to insult. everone is donateing money to prevent this from happing again. that will not happen. the only way to prevent this from happening is to protect your self.
 
Welcome to So. Cal. Cheryl. When I had my shop there were a couple of times that I got there hours before the cops did after a burglary had occured. Sometimes they were quick and sometimes they weren't. Breakins aren't exactly a high priority when there are as many murders and assaults as we used to have where I lived.

There are also some smart crooks out there. There would be nights where my alarm was set off three or four times just so they could see how long the responce time was. Sometimes this would happen several nights a week. I spent many a night in my shop back then and we still got robbed. No, not when I was there but it's not too hard to watch and see if a business is unoccupied or not. Most of the thieves that were caught were customers and they usually lived pretty close to the shop, twice with two different sets of thieves they lived less than 200 yards away. Easy to watch and see what's happening.

Interestingly enough I did have a lot of breeders for a long time and I always told people that I kept them at a separate facility. In acutality they were in a separate locked room at my shop. That room was never hit, it was just the animals up front in the shop that were easy to get and easy to see.

While most criminals wind up being stupid and getting caught, they are also clever at figuring out how to rip people off.

Some people just suck.

Wes Pollock
 
Vince,
I do know Jeff and he is a very friendly guy. His animals did get stolen and that is not the issue. Generally people start asking for proof of allegations when the person making them is less than honest. As far as I can tell Jeff did not post here... Jeff did not ask for any money... Not one person has sent any of the pledged money to Jeff nor will they ever. He got robbed and he shouldn't have to explain anything to you about it. He did not ask for you or anyone to donate, and he did not come here looking for help or advice. You want all these people to tell you about the proof and if this is a scam.... Well, it seems as though the information has been posted all over this thread and anyone that has as much doubt as you do should be able to find out the info before going off on an alarm tirade. Go to Kingsnake and it is on a big link on the front page. When you heard the term Snake Keeper, you really couldnt figure out a way to get to that website? I personally think it is rude in this situation to come along and insinuate a scam when your the one who has not looked for information and is basically ignorant to what is going on. Your comments about people with high end morphs sound more like your jealous than anything. Think about this for one minute. How long would it take for someone to run in a house and pick out morphs when their are less than a hundred animals available. It would be alot quicker than the 10 minutes that your ADT superman could figure out to get to your house. Do you work in sales for ADT? I know your probably just trying to keep people from getting scammed, but in this case it is ridiculous. THis shows the reptile community does not want to take this type of crap in our business. We needed $50,000 to get news coverage which would hopefully get someone who noticed a friend with a bunch of new snakes, or maybe even turn in their friend for the reward. I really am proud of how we have come together for Jeff and I hope that the scum get caught. When it does come time to send in our pledge, I guess maybe we shouldn't trust the authorities to do the right thing... Maybe they are in on the scam too!
:confused:
Thanks,
Tom Baker
 
hey tom dont take it so personal, this type of thing has been done once before, and why the hell would i be jelouse, the fact that the morphs are worth so much money should meen you would take extra lengths to protect them. i meen a 20,000 dollar snake should at least be implanted with the micro chips that they now use on all puppys that are sold at retail locations. Adt is just one step a person can take to protect there high value herps. dont take it so personal buddy. just thought i would voice my concern that this is a potental scam. and i have already stated i do not know the info other then what has been posted on this thread. good luck catchn these guys. it might also be helpful to post the photos of stolen animals, and the link to the snake keeper site, it can only help your cause,
 
I posted the link several pages ago. www.ballpython.com .

I also think it is rude to insinuate that the Sutherlands could be running this as a scam. Again, they are one of the most respected breeders in the country.

That is fine to be skeptical, but you should look around and read the info before accusing anyone of a scam.
AGAIN-- no money has been sent to anyone. It is not going to Jeff. It is going to the arrest and conviction of the theif. I am sure a court number and/or news article will be provided so we can all know what happened and who did it before money is collected.

Dana
 
Pennebaker said:
I posted the link several pages ago. www.ballpython.com .



That is fine to be skeptical, but you should look around and read the info before accusing anyone of a scam.


Dana
Click to expand...

I never accused anyone of pulling a scam. why dont you read the info before accusing me.
 
and noone posted that link, if they did i would not have said a thing in the first place. i didnt know the extent and who really was the actual person who got wrobed. i thought it was just a private breeder. i am sorry that i did not hunt down all the info. but now that it was posted a lot of things are cleared up/.
 
Vince,
I probably did come off a little harsh only because I would be completely devastated if something like that happened to me. With all the time invested in raising the money to buy them, house them and so on, it really would ruin someone's life. Not to mention the possibility of debt owed for some animals such as credit cards, breeding loans, etc.. Not only did they take all of his morphs and some big females, they trashed the rest leaving hets and normals together on the floor and trashed his house too. These animals probably won't end up anywhere on the market for quite a few years. They will probably end up in a secret breeding project that will be producing offspring to be sold to all of us honest herpers unknowingly. Chips would only work if you have the animal and if the thief is smart, noone will see these animal for at least a decade. But now, when one scum knows his scummy buddy stole a bunch of snakes he wouldn't even care. Until... On FOX News he sees a $50,000 reward for iformation on these snakes. He thinks "Holy crap!! Do you know how much speed I can buy with that?" and then turns his friend in. :hehe: I really hope it works out like this.
Tom Baker
 
Pennebaker said:
The link was posted at the bottom of page 3.
Click to expand...

sorry didnt see it. and now i feel bad after checking out the webpage and reading the full story, from now on I will make sure i know what the real deal is before i start insinuating a scam. sorry if i upset anyone , I hope those f'kers get cought. im guessing insurance companys dont cover animals?
 
First let me say thanks for starting this thread, I was going to, but was not sure this was the right place. Second Jeff is a great guy and beleive this is not a scam. Third. Alarms? they are nice and I do have one, however depend on it? Never. 10 mins in someones snake room is a lot of time. I know someone could just about clean me out in 10 mins. ecspecially if they knew what they were looking for and where to find it. Bottom line Jeff is a good people not like some of the scam artists saying they were broke into. I do think this will be a deterrant for others contimplating a theft. If you do it people will be looking for you, is a strong signal. Craig Kade
 
To clarify a few things...
Mo money is being collected. If and when a reward is paid, it'a at the discretion of the investigating law enforcement agency, and not anyone else.

As for alarm systems, I personally find them to be of little value, other than providing a limited false sense of security. They are easily defeated and the monitoring services are prone to unreliability. Even if the system is not defeated, a rapid LE response is not guaranteed. As previously stated, some jurisdictions are making it policy not to respond to alarms unless they've been verified. Still others simply lack the human resources necessary to provide a rapid response... I've personally seen response times of 24 hours.
 
It is too bad so much attnetion is being payed to Vince in this thread and not at the matter at hand.

I first heard about this yesterday a couple hours before this thread was started.
Like it has been mentioned, it sickens me to know that someone would do this, herp or non herp related. Although the money is very tough to lose when one works so hard in their life to get these snakes they desired. The truly sickening part is the feeling of being violated like Jeff must feel.
I have never had this happen to me in any way and can only imagine the feelings running through Jeff and his Wife's mind right now.
I hope the individuals responsible for this are caught and caught quick. I hope justice is served on them with the heaviest of penalties as they deserve no less.
These people who do these things make a conscious decision to do this act, it takes planning, timing, and like mentioned, a certain level of skill (what a horrible thought that is in itself).
My wife and I talked about this at great lengths last night and our hearts and prayers go out to Jeff and his wife. We hope the future is bright and wonderful success' are rewarded soon to you both.
Keep your heads up!!
 
Ken Harbart said:

As for alarm systems, I personally find them to be of little value, other than providing a limited false sense of security.
Click to expand...

yeah right , if i didnt have an alarm the attempted wrobery of my home would have alot worse then it was. but thats off topic. good luck on your man hunt. i am really upset the way you guys put it, im sure it took jeff quite some time to amount a nice collection/breeding group of high end high quality pythons, only to have them stolen by someone in a night. and i guess in a place such as LA you would need a large dollar amount to get some attetion. i was hopeing that out of everything i said maybe someone could come up with more ideas to protect them selves from theves instead of bashing the ideas i tryd to bring to everyones attention. i meen some good can come out of all this . even if jeff never gets his snakes back maybe we as a group can come up with ways to help protect our selves from something like this happening. ill say it again, i am sorry for jumping the gun and saying this seemed like a scam, i didnt have all the info. but it does seem like steps need to be taken, there is way to much theft in the reptile word, wether it be at shows or a break in at home. i am just trying to spark some of your imaginations maybe we can come up with something. micro chips virtualy elimated thefts in puppys. and have helpd track down lost pets.
 
well

well webslave give me the licks hell im willing to be banned altogether,but after reading this whole thread i have to say it,,,"vince your an ASSHOLE:( ",,,
THOMAS DAVIS
 
lol , come on man, lets take this out of the middle school level, all i have to say is grow up. if my appology wasnt good anough for you them you have some problems buddy. name calling? man now thats pathetic.
 
uhuh

well vince i was out of line i admit it , but your whole microchip,alarmsys..thing as well as accusation that this is/was a scam is/was PATHETIC ,IMHO, ,,,, this is/was a horrific incident ,and yet you seem to of gotten some sick pleasure of accusuing one of the truly great guys of this hobby,of something imoral/illegal ,and not even realizing the situation being that NOONE is expected to pay anything til these scum are convicted,duh?read? and its all i have to say,,,,,,,god bless jeff and good luck catching these scum,,,,,,,,,thomas
 
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