A thief broke into a North Carolina reptile store last Sunday and swiped $30,000 worth of snakes, including a rare python worth $12,500, police said. Captured on the store's surveillance video, the suspect is filmed bragging about snatching a tiger python.
"We have heard about dogs being stolen before," Donna Lahser, public information officer at the Gastonia Police Department, told ABC News. "But cases where snakes are stolen are very rare."
Jonathan McMillan, owner of Reptile Passion said he was shocked when he discovered that 35 snakes had been stolen from his store on June 29, including a rare pied tiger reticulated python, which is valued at $12,500. "There are only about 15 to 20 of them [pied tiger reticulated python] in America," McMillan said.
The store's surveillance footage showed a thief breaking the window with a stone around 3 a.m. Sunday, walking directly into the back room of the store, and taking out 35 snakes including albino pythons, albino super tigers, albino red tail boas and albino pythons, totaling about $30,000, ABC News reported. Although he carried out the burglary within minutes, the suspect was seen talking to an alleged partner on the phone throughout the crime, saying "I got the tiger python" after he grabbed the most expensive snake from a tub and shoved it into a bag.
"Whoever it was had to have been in here last week because I move stuff around a lot for cleaning," McMillan, who has been in the reptile business for 20 years and had opened the shop about four months ago, said. "He knew exactly what he was looking for."
McMillan suspects the thief will try to sell the snakes to other reptile lovers, and has been receiving calls from New Jersey to Florida, telling him they would keep an eye out on Craigslist for possible ads. "The reptile community is very small and close-knit," McMillan said. "No matter if it's a fire, or a burglary, we always look out for each other."
Tips can be made to Crime Stoppers of Gaston County at 704-861-8000.
