Let's see, where did we end up? Kevin has been released from being held. There were quite a few charges, and I don't know how that will be settled. Many involved animal laws (number of Florida Box in captivity, venomous reptiles, etc.), and it's unclear whether they seized his animals, as had been reported by the news, but contradicted by his wife.
I have spoken to his lawyer at least three times. His name is Angelo M. Ferlita, (813)254-7047. I told Mr. Ferlita that I would pursue this legally, if I didn't at least receive a call from Kevin. My intention isn't to make the situation worse, but $1500 is a little too much for me to just forget about. Mr. Ferlita told me that Kevin's wife disappeared, that he didn't even have a cell phone, but that he would have him call me, and we could try to make some kind of plans. However, it's been more than 6 weeks, and despite several calls to the lawyer, I've heard nothing.
According to Connecticut, this is a civil matter. I can take him to court, where he obviously won't win the case, and have a lean put on any future business or property of his. It would have just been better if he had called me, and said that he was getting everything together, and come up with some kind of plan, which I wouldn't be adverse to working with. But hearing nothing, I feel like I was scammed. I certainly am not suggesting that Kevin did this deliberately. But likewise, I don't believe he has the animals he is selling. I think he is more of a broker, who takes payment, and then purchases the animals for the customers. So the 4 turtles that I was looking for are in the wind somewhere. At this point, I would rather receive a refund, but for the last three months, this situation hasn't looked promising. Kevin and I had done business in the past, and despite a couple of times that it took him a little longer to send animals that he promised, I wouldn't have expected this.
Any questions, anyone can certainly email me at
[email protected].
I would caution all of you who might consider dealing with Kevin in this way: he used to accept Paypal, which would have provided protection to the potential buyer. Had we used Paypal, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I don't know what went wrong with Paypal for Kevin, and why he was no longer using it, but switching to depositing cash in his Wells Fargo account, as I did on three or four separate occasions, wasn't something I preferred to do - not to mention the closest Wells Fargo bank is 30 minutes from my house. But if any of you do deal with him in the future, I would strongly suggest that you not do so, unless Kevin starts accepting Paypal again. It's not my intention to check the background of every turtle seller here, but when you get burned, everything changes.
