Police Seek Two Pythons and Poacher

At first, David LaPlante figured the rare pythons--each a solid 6 feet long and valued at $7,500--had just slithered off for an outing.

He checked the haunts where such a snake might choose to hide: the ceiling, the feed room and a pile of wood out back. LaPlante used a flashlight to peek into nooks and crannies and had employees turn his Fountain Valley pet shop upside-down in a frenzied, two-day snake hunt.

Finally, he called the police. The pair of jaguar carpet pythons, a male and a female and both 2 years old, had been stolen from their cages at Prehistoric Pets, said Fountain Valley Police Sgt. Jim Perry.

The snakes disappeared after closing hours Wednesday, when the pythons were still taking it easy in their cages, LaPlante said. “It’s frustrating,” said LaPlante, 38, the store’s manager for five years. “We had one employee each day searching for them.”

He said the search was painstaking. “They can squeeze in very tight places,” he added.

The snakes weigh about 5 pounds each and likely will triple in weight as they age, LaPlante said. The shop manager said the pythons, which he bought from a breeder about four months ago, are rare. He planned to breed the snakes in hopes of creating a “super jaguar” python, a reptile he thought might fetch as much as $15,000.

LaPlante said this wasn’t the first time thieves have made off with valuable reptiles from the store. Several years ago, snake rustlers broke through the back doors to swipe an Australian black-headed python and a woma python.

Last month, however, when a pair of 3-foot ruthveni king snakes were missing, they were hiding behind their cages, LaPlante said.

Anyone with information is asked to call Fountain Valley police at (714) 593-4472.