What a funny story we have here! It was only by chance that I happened upon this thread after doing a search for 'James Earl's' cell number.... after some curious incidents in my dealings with him. Oh, and I knew him by 'Brian Lee,' but for the sake of clarity I will stick with James.
On Aug. 19th, James contacted me in regards to some baby coral cobras I had hatched out. Said he had been looking for a baby aspidelaps. He had never worked with them and heard they were great first elapids. After working out a deal, we decided to meet on Aug. 23rd. We planned to meet near Jame's home in Chesapeake, VA. My boyfriend, Kris, carried the baby coral cobra to work with him, as we would not have time to go home and pick it up before the prearranged meeting time. At 5pm, James sent me an email saying that his wife wrecked their car and he *may not* be able to meet. I offered to bring him the snake. He gave me his address, and said he may not have the money.. he needs to dig around for it. He did not have the money. Funny thing is, he gave me the same address that he gave to Bryan Hines. I did not look into the address at this time, as there was no reason to go there if he did not have the money for the snake. He sent the address again, at a later date. funny thing is, he tells Bryan that he moved out of this house around Aug. 10th. It was TWICE after this date that he sent me the same address. A foreclosed house.
Okay, fine, stuff happens. So we agreed to meet up again another time. Little bit of time wasted and a little stress to the snake, no big deal.
Through email, we tried to work out another time to meet. James had many issues with transportation and being out of time, but we were finally able to work out a date - Aug 28th. On that date, he said he had the $150 for the snake..... EXCEPT he had spent $25 on pizza. He also said he wanted to buy a rattlesnake from me. So, I compromised and told him that we could give him the coral cobra for $125. When he wanted the rattlesnake, we would settle it for $75.
On Aug 28th, we met. We talked for a good bit, and I felt much better after meeting him. He seemed a bit wishy washy with all these problems, but in person he seemed much more trustworthy. He mentioned to me that he kept nearly every species of N.A. rattlesnakes so i asked about ridge-nosed rattlers. He told me, Oh yes, I have two pairs of those. A friend of mine gave me them for free. I mentioned that I be very interested in them, asked for pictures and what not. James proceeded to tell me that he was not very comfortable in the captive care for these snakes and would be willing to give them to me. Needless to say, I was very excited!
So, James sent me the pictures. Turned out that two of the snakes were massasaugas. He apologized for the picture he sent, saying that they did not like to sit still and were hard to photograph... implying that he took the pictures, yeah? A quick browse on venomland, and you can see these pictures too! The animals belong to Chaim Haveman in the netherlands. He posted the exact same pictures that I received about two years ago.
The other pictures were of a C. lepidus morulus and a willardi. I've yet to find the willy picture, but the morulus belongs to Benjamin Tull in Germany, who assures me that he still has this snake in his possession. I only recently found these pictures.
So since this conversation, I've been attempting to meet up with James since he sent these pictures. Every time, its been something. He spends a lot of time in Richmond (so he says). Or his wife is gone, and he can't meet.. Excuses for everything. I live 20minutes away from you, guy!
Then, a friend of mine was selling a neotropical rattler. I hit James up and let him know, in case he was interested. They worked out a deal and James was going to buy the snake.
I talked to James on Oct. 2nd. He agreed to meet when he returned home from Richmond, and claimed to have taken all four with him up Richmond. He said he'd be leaving around 6pm. That would put him back in my area around 8pm. I texted him multiple times around 8pm to find out where he was and where he wanted to meet. No answer. At 10:30pm, James sends me an email - my text is working, but I'm in the area. Where do you want to meet?
I told him to stop somewhere and let me know where - I'd be there in 10min at most. After this, I boxed up the rattlesnake and hopped in the car. I drove down the road and pulled over in the area that James claimed he was, waiting for him to email again and let me know where he was. Never got an answer. I went home.
I talked to my friend with neotropical rattlesnake the next day. He told me that James had come to the petstore (which is in our area... not richmond), at 5:30pm Oct. 2nd. James had told me he was in Richmond all day. Not only that, but my friend from the petstore was receiving texts from James the evening of Oct. 2nd and during the day on the 3rd. Even funnier, James picked up the neotropical, but oh shoot.. didn't have enough money! He promised my friend at the pet store that he would return with the money. He also told this friend that he had bred coral cobras (if you remember, James told me he had NEVER had an elapid, that this coral cobra was going to be his first. He even asked me for details on captive care) and would sell him on for $50. Weird...
I don't understand whats up with James Earl/Brian Lee. Seems like he just likes to give people the run around. I see no truth to his claim that he has the four snakes he sent me pictures of... so why offer them to me for free?
James Earl/Brian Lee is a pathological liar. If you want to waste your time and money, by all means, deal with him. Furthermore, another hot keeper made a deal with him and was screwed over:
http://www.venomousreptiles.org/classifieds/detail/33993
I wish to warn my fellow herpers of southernboy A.K.A.(
[email protected]) who has posted here in the past and even now.
I after several emails with the southernboy worked out a trade and then I drove to VA to do the exchange and he didn't give me the correct adress. Also the name on he gave on the phone was wrong, he has refused my emails afterward. But I see he wants to purchase or trade. For your own protection do not do buisness with this person. If you can tell me his real adress or name I would appreaciate it.
This was marked by the originator on Sep 13, 2011 as being sold.
I know this is the same person that Bryan Hines dealt with, as the phone numbers are the same, and the fake address is the same. Watch out for this guy.
