What are cheap easy to find locally reptiles here are in most cases very valuable in the pet shop trade o/seas , it's easier for illegal wildlife traffickers to steel them from keepers and breeders than to try to find wild specimens and catch them.
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If you just have a few fairly common/cheap snakes you're at basically zero risk of theft. Animals are more difficult to steal, don't store as well and are far more identifiable than laptops etc. It would be stupid to steal a typical python to try to sell it.
Thefts occur with high end stuff worth big dollars. Some people have literally hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of snakes, these are the ones who need to be concerned about theft, and yes, in those cases thefts do occur.
Assuming you don't have anything especially expensive, don't be paranoid about letting people know you have them or posting pictures on social media. If you do have a collection of snakes worth ten grand or more then yeah, either be paranoid and secretive or have an appropriate security system, as you would if you had a lot of expensive electronics or other valuables.
Cheap easy to buy here , is nearly always scarce and expensive to buy in pet shops in places like the USA, Europe etc, a lot of reptile thievery is by international wildlife traffickers who very likely are stealing to order ( big box pet chain or distributer requests some specific species , the thief steals these and they are soon in luggage or a parcel going onto a jumbo to them, if not detected by customs, most are not detected , hence they consider it easy money , especially when there are always "mules" ready to run the risk of being caught ).
It’s one thing I’m gonna have to be wary of when I get babies, I’m 100% not letting strangers within 10minutes of my house (there’s been cases where people have been followed back home) and will only trade during daylight hours in a public location like a McDonald’s
The local breeders I've bought from ( BTs, EWS, and bearded dragons ) all except one used this policy which was fine by me ( as the buyer - I understand why they were not interested in having strangers come to their home ).
I don't like strangers coming to my home either and certainly wont let them past my front security door without a prior arranged appointment ( tradesmen to do work for me ).
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Thanks guys,
I don't "do" social media apart from online forums. The problems I have seen facebook create have outweighed the pro's in my opinion. Plus it's likely that a few family members wouldn't even come to my house if they knew I had a snake. At least one would definitely be diagnosed with Ophiophobia if they were evaluated. It's easier just to keep it quiet all round in our case.
I just wasn't sure if the local junkies or crime rings had some sort of attraction to snakes with what has been mentioned elsewhere but it appears it's mostly a non issue which is nice to have confirmation. Thanks!
Junkies are not all there uptop between their ears and are very irrational in what they will do find their next fix.
Quite a few drug busts I've seen reported on the nightly news have had reptiles in the squat, the drug-den, the secret drug lab. I'm betting most these have been stolen in by "customers" and swapped for a fix.