OK, folks....the time has come....My Father is having trouble posting, so I am going to copy his email here for you with headers and all so you can check IP addy's or whatever you do...
[email protected] (Jay & Elaine) Date: Wed, May 29, 2002, 11<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wow.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':0'>7am (EDT-3) To:
[email protected] Subject: Fwd: Snake Pit burglary
Luv, E&J
Delivered-To:
[email protected] From:
[email protected] (Jay & Elaine) Date: Wed, May 29, 2002, 10:54am (EDT-3) To:
[email protected] (Rich Zuchowski) Cc:
[email protected] Subject: Snake Pit burglary
Good morning, Rich.
I'm writing this as an email to you, so you can read it before you post it on the BOI.
Let me introduce myself to your readers: my name is Jay Gubitz, I live in Las Vegas, I am the father of Neil Gubitz.
I have just recently been introduced to BOI, and it is I who have been suggesting to Neil that he not get himself involved with responding to the scurrilous letters that have been written about him, accusing him of burglarizing his own store. I asked him: What difference does it make if a few dozen faceless names floating out there in cyberspace want to think the worst of you? You know you didn't do anything, and I know it, so why bother spending all this time defending yourself? His reply: It's not just a few dozen, it's a few hundred, and I regard them all as my friends; if even one of them thinks poorly of me, that's unacceptable.
Neil is a proud man, and has been working very hard to build up a solid business, and I respect his desire to maintain a good standing in the herp community. After having read many of the pages and realizing that much of what I was reading was mis-information, I thought it was time for me to bring my point of view to bear. When you read what I have to say, you will be as convinced as I am that Neil had nothing to do with the burglaries and is being unjustly vilified.
My wife and I set up the corporation that does business under the name of The Snake Pit, but Neil is the de facto owner. I had the wherewithal to start a business, and I had (and have) a good financial and credit history. The arrangement was that when Neil could bring the business to a stable base and sizeable Retained Earnings, we would turn the business over to him and he would become the legal owner. (Remember this for later.)
Now let's go back to the time shortly after the May 02 burglary. A few mentions were made (on the BOI) of "motive." Why would Neil want to burgle his own store? How would it profit him? Some answers were suggested and then bandied about - and the subject apparently dropped out of sight. I am restoring that line of thinking.
The most obvious thought is that Neil was trying to defraud the Insurance company. The fact of the matter is that after a few small-scale burglaries, the Insurance company paid off - and then cancelled the insurance! Neil was unable to find a company that would insure him, so from that point on Neil had no insurance! When Neil was hit with the next burglary, Dec 01, he was uninsured, and collected not one thin dime! So why would he do it again in May 02? To have the pleasure of not collecting again? The concept of trying to defraud an Insurance company is out of the question: there was no company to defraud.
Another motive raised was that Neil was trying to steal from his father, me. The facts are these: after purchasing the store in 1998 and putting in some additional dollars for improving the physical set-up and increasing the inventory, no further investment was made until 2000, when Neil wanted to get into the higher-end reptiles, and also to get some expensive gravid females. Neil's business was looking good and building, so I invested some more dollars during the first half of 2001.
Now the crucial points: after the Dec 01 burglary, I sent The Snake Pit a check for $2,500 (that's twenty-five hundred, not twenty-five thousand) to help with the iron bars, security system, and cameras. After the recent Mar 02 burglary, I sent The Snake Pit nothing!
Neil wasn't stealing from me, nor would he ever think of doing so. Who started this idea that I sent Neil $25,000 after each of four burglaries, for a total of $100,000, and Neil was pocketing the money? This is a prime example of the aphorism that if a lie is told often enough it takes on the aura of truth.
So, if Neil wasn't making any money on these burglaries, why would he have smashed the tanks during the Dec 01 break-in and send crickets, mice, and snakes hopping and slithering throughout the store? Just so he could spend idle days cleaning, sweeping, and chasing? That makes no sense at all.
Now let's go back to the part where I told you about the inception of the business, the part where Neil would get to be the legal owner of the business, instead of the de facto owner. Shortly before each of the last two break-ins business had been steadily improving, both the bottom line and Retained Earnings. After the two break-ins, the RE plummeted. Ownership had moved further away, instead of being in his grasp. He had to start all over again. Twice. Would anyone really think that Neil would jeopardize his opportunity like that? Not on your life!
There you have it: Neil had absolutely no motive for breaking into his own store, and I can't say it any more strongly than that.
I hope by now that all of you realize that if Neil did not do it, then someone else did. But who? I'm going to end this letter now, because I gave you a lot to digest. But I will be back very soon and I will start pointing fingers. And I will tell you about The Telephone Calls!
In the meantime, if you would like to learn a little more about me and my retirement hobbies, take a look at my website:
http://community.webtv.net/ja-gu-ar.
Rich, thank you very much for your time and attention, and please post this as soon as possible.
Cordially yours, Jay Gubitz
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