Tom Crutchfield - dba Herps Ltd

[WebSlave]

Personally, I did a fair amount of business with Tom years ago, and never had a problem. I picked up animals at his place and had him ship to me, and was never disappointed in what I got from him. He was always gracious with my wife and I and even took us to his house to show us his croc and tortoise pens.

If Tom has something for sale that I wanted, I wouldn't have any hesitations about buying from him.

IMHO....

 

[Tim Cole]

It took

a $500 loss in a deal with Tom that made me not want to deal with him again.

I had traded him a proven breeder pair of Queensland Carpet Pythons for 2 Baby King Cobras that I was GUARANTEED were self feeding on live pinkies. They didn't feed and I ended up force feeding them just to keep them alive for 2 weeks.

 

[Jim O]

Actually I skimmed back through the posts and I couldn't find any negatives on recent transactions...

So John Apple's wasn't recent enough? What about the misabeled chondro in post 12? Would we give him a pass for that? I remember a recent thread where a seller got crucified over something similar.

And what about all the crap he shipped out in the 90's? Just because it isn't recent doesn't make that OK, unless he's made everyone whole. Paying his debt on the smuggling doesn't rectify that.

He's not a character whith whom I would do business. My standards are higher than that.

 

[k.williams55]

To answer your questions.......

..........YES, I did business with Tommy Boy and got burned - not once, but twice. He had Herptefauna and I sent him some albino atrox from the Dallas Zoo strain, which then were actually worth something. One of the males was a caramel 6'7" 28 lbs. with 32 rattles. The fems were super nice and large as well. There was also an assortment of alterna and milks; I had some of the first milks described as "micropholis".
It was a trade. He was to send hondurans, stuarti, conanti, gagae and tri colored hogs. Keep in mind this was in the 80's when none of this stuff was available readily. The hondurans were nice 5'-6', but all males which was not the deal, the stuarti were arcifera and all gravid egg bound/impacted females, the conanti were not conanti(never really knew what they were) and the gagae were ugly polyzona and all males. There were NO tri colored hogs and he claimed that was not part of the deal. He kept my snakes and refused to take back the stuff he sent to me. He did send me additional snakes - again all males and nothing we agreed to. I lost big time on that deal. The second deal I was in with another herper and that herper got stiffed by Tommy. I never dealt with him again. He threatened me and anyone else who questioned him about a bad deal. Suppossedly he was some muscle head bodybuilder who thought he was invincible. Guess the USFW showed him otherwise. Wonder how the chow was in Federal Correctional ??? Now he is back. Do we give him a pass ? He's a convict. Seems no one on here forgives convicts. Why forgive this one ? I'm not saying he shouldn't be forgiven, but WHY ? Just because he's done a few good deals. Once a dog bites, it WILL bite you again if given the opportunity. Keep that in mind when dealing with this guy. The better story here is how Tommy Boy went down and who was responsible......but that is another story ! Nighty night.................

 

[romad119]

Tom posted information to a thread on Cuban Boas on KS. He said to anyone who needed more info to email him his number. He called me and gave me alot of good advice for breeding my pair. When others in the past wouldn't share any info, he took the time to do so. I can't address any past issues but this left me with a positive experience.

 

[Kingetula]

30 pages in this topic... I'll start looking over them but last I heard he closed down. I guess the state of Florida or someone busted him and he was in jail???

I use to buy from him 12 years ago or so. I have heard bad things about him but I never really had a problem. Only 1 time when he kept telling me my snakes would be there tomorrow so I drove from Jacksonville to his shop... 4 times I did this for the snakes that would be there tomorrow. ;-) oh well I was excited and gas was cheap.

 

[brucestephenson]

Personally, I did a fair amount of business with Tom years ago, and never had a problem. I picked up animals at his place and had him ship to me, and was never disappointed in what I got from him. He was always gracious with my wife and I and even took us to his house to show us his croc and tortoise pens.

If Tom has something for sale that I wanted, I wouldn't have any hesitations about buying from him.

IMHO....

Tom gave me the same treatment as Rich. He has been more than kind to me over the decades. Tom has been selling reptiles again for at least several years now, and has tables at shows. The last contact numbers I have for him are Tom Crutchfield, Herps Ltd, Inc. [email protected] 239-645-9661

 

[lanceheads]

Bruce,
Ditto for me.
Tom has ALWAYS treated me fairly, and I was his manager for several years.
A pleasure to work for and with.

I consider Tim Cole a friend and was surprised by his sour dealings with him. (Tom).

Randal Berry

 

[snakeworshipper]

He brought in the FIRST albino burmese

Marc,
Part of his probation AFTER he served his time, was to have no contact with anyone in the Reptile Buisness, or have any snakes, etc. for a five year period.

Tom Crutchfiels HAS contributed a lot to herpetoculture.

I wish him continued success!

Randal Berry

sorry for bringing up a month old post, but i wanted to mention something that i do not believe was mentioned earlier in the thread. Tom Crutchfield was I BELIEVE the person that imported the original ALBINO BURMESE PYTHON! The one that Bob Clark bought 20-30 years ago. I remember reading an article by Bob, saying that he started breeding Burmese Pythons as a teenager. He saw the albino Burm and HAD to get it. Later he saw it on Tom's price list, bought it and bred the first albino Burms in the world. If I'm not mistaken, the Albino Burmese Pythons are what brought the herp breeding hobby to life.
-Josh

 

[John Apple]

sorry for bringing up a month old post, but i wanted to mention something that i do not believe was mentioned earlier in the thread. Tom Crutchfield was I BELIEVE the person that imported the original ALBINO BURMESE PYTHON! The one that Bob Clark bought 20-30 years ago. I remember reading an article by Bob, saying that he started breeding Burmese Pythons as a teenager. He saw the albino Burm and HAD to get it. Later he saw it on Tom's price list, bought it and bred the first albino Burms in the world. If I'm not mistaken, the Albino Burmese Pythons are what brought the herp breeding hobby to life.
-Josh

I disagree, while Ol tommy has done some good for the herp industry, He has done a lot of bad and illegal importing , selling substandard animals and such.
The industry has been around for a LOOOOONNNNGGGG time and there are many other people who have contributed more legally for exotics with out stepping on importing and exporting laws. It is people like this get can get your house raided by all the tree hugging idiots out there. A bit harsh...well yeah but I was never a softy or afraid of being blunt.
When called out the threats start, phone calls and all kinds of secondhand conjecture spit out by Ol tommy to others in the industry.
There are many factors that brought the herp industry to life not just burmsor TC
A fair man...to some yes I am sure he was, to those he has wronged wellllll

 

[critical bill]

sorry for bringing up a month old post, but i wanted to mention something that i do not believe was mentioned earlier in the thread. Tom Crutchfield was I BELIEVE the person that imported the original ALBINO BURMESE PYTHON! The one that Bob Clark bought 20-30 years ago. I remember reading an article by Bob, saying that he started breeding Burmese Pythons as a teenager. He saw the albino Burm and HAD to get it. Later he saw it on Tom's price list, bought it and bred the first albino Burms in the world. If I'm not mistaken, the Albino Burmese Pythons are what brought the herp breeding hobby to life.
-Josh

Hey Josh, if I could I wouldn't pardon a guy convicted of pushing a person in front of a train simply because he was boy scout in his younger days and helped many people cross a street safely at onetime. While you may think my comparison too severe to compare, just try to look at it from the perspective of a smuggled fiji island iguana. And for the record....the albino burmese did not bring the herp breeding hobby to life. It was blossoming to what it has become today, all over the world, and long before Tommy ever entered the scene and graced us with his small contributions.

 

[Tim Cole]

Here's a new twist...

Bob Sloan is taking credit for Tom going to jail! And I thought I had heard them all!

Check out post #54.

Sloan jailing Crutchfield.

 

[devaneedori]

do you have any older ETB's up for adoption. i have a great cage and i'm offering a relaxing, lifetime retirement.

 

[lanceheads]

For the record, I believe Alfred Ojeda imported the first albino Burmese.
Tom aquired them and Bob Clark "rented" them for breeding.
I wrote an article years ago in Reptile/Amphibian magazine about this, but can't find the issue.

And, Chuckie is sorta correct,

"And for the record....the albino burmese did not bring the herp breeding hobby to life."

Offspring (from the albino Burmese) DID accellerate the "hobby", no question.
Plus, you wouldn't have albino Iggy's, alligators, normal Boelens, Ringed Pythons etc. as early as we did if it WEREN'T for Tom having acquired them and offering to the public, no question. Plus a myriad of crocodilians.

 

[critical bill]

do you have any older ETB's up for adoption. i have a great cage and i'm offering a relaxing, lifetime retirement.

Your posting in the wrong place. This is the BOI forum. Its to report good and bad transactions (plus inquiries) between buyers and sellers. If your looking to adopt an animal there is a separate forum for that.

 

[BlueBettaUSA.com]

For the record, I believe Alfred Ojeda imported the first albino Burmese.
Tom aquired them and Bob Clark "rented" them for breeding.
I wrote an article years ago in Reptile/Amphibian magazine about this, but can't find the issue.

And, Chuckie is sorta correct,

"And for the record....the albino burmese did not bring the herp breeding hobby to life."

Offspring (from the albino Burmese) DID accellerate the "hobby", no question.
Plus, you wouldn't have albino Iggy's, alligators, normal Boelens, Ringed Pythons etc. as early as we did if it WEREN'T for Tom having acquired them and offering to the public, no question. Plus a myriad of crocodilians.

Yes, it was Alfred Ojeda who brought in the first albino burmese (and let the record show that Alfred was jailed a few times on drug smuggling as he favored the empty compartment under the "hots" to bring it in which in those days was the "way") and if memory serves me correctly Mario from Zoological Imports in Miami had a second one as well which went through Tom.

I am not going to get into a pissing in the wind match here but I am a second generation buyer from Tom Crutchfield who has now sold animals to my sons so now it's three generations of us having bought animals from him over the last 30 years and hundreds of thousdands of dollars being spent and traded and never a bad deal. I've been to and stayed at Tom's house in both Ft.Myers and Brooksville and have been there through the good and bad but have nothing but the best to say about him.




IMHO, we all have issues in our past and those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones as they say.

 

[critical bill]

IMHO, we all have issues in our past and those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones as they say.

Your opinion is laced with bias in connection with and the protection of a dear friend.

I have no criminal issues or near criminal issues in my past. Maybe you have them and maybe Tom has them, but we all don't have them.

 

[John Apple]

Glass houses ,,,? yeah whatever. I have issues in my past and no more now....honest as all heck. That being said when I am wronged and am in a glass house I will chuck some bricks, boulders and sticks to tear down the walls.

 

[evansnakes]

The albino cornsnake did much more this business than the burm. They went from about $25,000 to $7500 the next year to $200 the next year or two after that. The first mass produced project and I think it needs to be mentioned that Mark and Kim Bell are the ones who really put the albino burm out there. They produced tons of them. You look at the market today and cornsakes are much more important to the trade than burms though. There are hardly any burm breeders left.

As for the venomous stuff and crocodillians that Tom sold, they are not and have never been mainstream pet trade fair, had little if no impact on the trade and are rapidly becoming illegal all over the country along with burmese pythons.

As far as Tom treating all the people in Florida, who would hand pick animals at his house or facility, posting here well, I have never heard the same from people in my neck of the woods. In MI, IL, PA, OH, IN, etc., I have never heard anything positive about the man up here at all, quite the opposite.

I really don't know why anyone would want to talk about this any longer. It is all public record and let the buyer beware. If you want to deal with people who have done much more harm to this business than good that is your choice. As Tom's supporters keep posting all the great things they believe he has done, they keep making excuses for the bad things he has done. Don't forget the enormous size and duration of the negative publicity that his exploits brought to this industry. Don't forget all the set-ups, entrapments, raids, stings and arrests all over the country that were fueled by and at least in part a follow up to Tom and a couple others high profile, well publicized criminal enterprises in reptiles. They justified the money for those operations by pointing out the success of prosecuting Tom and others. Don't forget that instead of admitting he was wrong and taking care of the situation, he fled the country and caused many many people to suffer for his crimes while he was gone. He was one of the biggest black eyes the reptile industry has ever suffered. I think that more than makes up for his contributions.

So we all know all this. Is there any reason to keep talking about Tom?

 

[Kaiyudsai]

I've dealt with Tom several times and had really good experiences. He always sent me what he said he was sending me. You have to keep in mind the reptile industry is very different now than it was back in the 90's. Everything was imported. The legal lines were really gray back then. He has really changed with the times.... and Honestly I'm glad he's back. There are alot of rumors going around about him, but the stories usually start out "I know a guy that ...... etc etc etc"..... I would bet most of them are concocted.....