Guess where I got to spend the night last night?

[Pookachu]

No, not the couch (though that's probably where I'll be the rest of the weekend)..

Got to spend a lovely evening jail with some very interesting people last night.

- -

So, yesterday my recently adopted girl (bearded dragon) laid eggs. Naturally I was pretty excited about that. Got everything I needed setup and decided to take a trip to the local petstore in my area.

This shop is an individual/Mom&Pop type shop, not a retail chain.

For the most part I have always been pretty disappointed and aggravated with their reptile setup's. But unfortunately they are the closest place to me to get feeders, otherwise I would have to pay an $8.00 toll to the next nearest one.

About a week ago they got a bunch babie beardies. I mean they have to be fresh out of the egg because i've never seen beardies that small before (and I got my girls when they were 4 weeks old and I thought that was small). These beardies were probably no bigger than a quarter.

- -

While waiting for them to get me some crickets I decided to go check on the babies to see how they were doing (I knew it was a bad idea as the last time I saw them they were on crushed walnut with no UVB lighting). The last time I saw them there were about 10 of them...

I went to the back and saw only 4, a ton of crickets not that much smaller than the babie beardies, but on top of that, an adult beardie in the same tank (also keep in mind the tank is a regular 20 gallon tank). WTF?

Normally I dont say anything with these guys because I have tried talking to them in the past about other reptiles in their care and basically went no where with it. This time though I called the owner over to the beardie tank..

Me: where are the other baby beardies?
Owner: hiding
Me: Where? its not that big of tank
Owner: /shrug
Me: im not going to get into the lack of lighting and substrates and such. But, you need to get that adult out of there. I can tell you exactly where those babies are hiding. In his (adult beardie) ***** stomach.
Owner: thats why the crickets are in there. He doesnt touch the little ones if he is full. Watch I'll show you...

He opens up the top of the tank and picks up one of the babies and waves it in front of the adult. At first nothing, and as he turns to me to start saying "see!?" The adult snatched the baby out of his hand.

Me: are you out of your ***** mind1?!?!

that baby was already gone and nothing I could do about it, and the adult started walking towards the other babies.... so as I was yelling at the owner, I started to reach my hand into the tank to grab the adult.

The owner starts yelling at me and then grabs my arm and tries to push me. The adult is still charging the babies so I try to reach my other hand in and then the owner grabs me and we get into a small tussle. Some how his wrist got broken in the process.

Then the son's owner comes running down the aisle with a bat, misses completely a couple times, breaks the cage with the beardies and another one with armadillo lizards accidentally.

He swung again, hit me in the thigh, and I then I accidentally broke his nose....

The cops showed up right after that.... didn't really get a chance to try to explain the situation, I was immediately restrained, and placed in the car.

....

anyways, long story short, got back a while ago. Now I have to get lawyer and appear in court soon. The owner is probably gonna try to sue.

I really do regret things got out of hand like that ... I dont know. This is why I generally try to keep comments to myself.

Fiance is not too happy about this, though not as mad at me per say, just more the situation. Considering the wedding is in a few months something like this really doesn't help.

 

[Ccrashca069]

That really sucks. Hopefully when the investigators get their act together and interview you, they will drop the charges. I would press charges against the son for assult with a deadly weapon and the owner.

 

[Pookachu]

Thank you... yeah, I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens...

Just a small update

More than likely I will probably get burned for this. Though a quick chat with a lawyer said at most I would get a fine and/or community service or probation. I can live with that...

He is going to look up what he can about animal abuse laws/regulations but he believes that crappy as it sounds beardies may get categorized in the "they're just lizards" category.

Also, my fiance was speaking to some of the neighborhood ladies who apparently is in the know with gossip and such and apparently the rumor that is going around is

a) I went into the store and started trouble when I looked at their reptiles. (well I guess this part is true)
b) The owner begged me to calm down and even offered to give me a discount on my purchase that day but I was irrate and beligerant and then finally lost it and assaulted the owner (not true)
c) Apparently I started screaming that I was a navy seal or something like that and after knocking down the owner I assaulted his son (who is around my age) and to prove that I was so "lethal with my bare hands" (apparently those were my words?) I threatened to kill the son if he didn't pick up a bat.

I have no idea? they do know I was in the military in the past through normal chit chat from the many times I've been there to get crickets. They also know that I was in Airborne specializing in satellite communications. Never was there any mention about anything about being some sort of badass. /shrug

I think they watched too many movies (like con air) and are trying to put in jail because I am supposedly this deadly weapon.

d) apparently I was the one that picked up the baby bearded dragon and tried to feed it to the adult to prove a point that bearded dragons will eat each other. ?

Anyways, the rumors I can care less about. The people that know me, know that I am not like that and the only ones I even remotely care about what they think about me already know that.

- - - -

I truly do wish none of what happened yesterday happened. I do not doubt that I could have handled it better... at the time if not for the reasons, I did feel that I was in the right for fighting back considering that the first physical contact was made by the other individuals.

 

[Halley]

I think you had every right to do what you did. People that don't know anything about the care of animals, shouldn't own pet shop. I completely agree with your stand on the situation.

 

[Golden Gate Geckos]

I would press charges against the store owner for animal neglect and cruelty.

 

[Select Gex]

It is a fun story none the less, I wish you the best.

 

[T&KBrouse]

Oh, man, Eugene, thats rough. I'm praying for the best for you. And I gotta commend you for standing up for those little guys the way you did. Someone has to be their voice.
Can you contact Fish & Wildlife to try and atleast get their store under investigation? (I've done it here in FL with pretty good results.)

 

[Pookachu]

Thanks .. I will be looking into what I can do to report them. Though the first thing I need to take care of is to make sure I do not goto jail or end up paying out of my butt in fines. Though, having to pay for a lawyer is not gonna be fun.

Fortunately since I suffer from chronic pain and already on pain killers this huge bruise on my thigh doesnt bother me as much.

Will keep everyone updated ...

 

[dprince]

Holy cow, what a complete jerk!!! (shop owner) I agree with Marcia, I'd press charges. Poor baby beardies. :main_no:

 

[Mel&Keith]

OMG....That's one heck of a story! I'm sure it'll be hilarious once everything is settled. I wish you luck and not too much trouble.

 

[gothra]

I would definately press charges against the shop as well. I mean, they started the fight, didn't they? I can't see what you've done wrong. They neglected their animals and fed a baby beardie to an adult in front of your eyes. Do they expect you to just stand there and watch the adult beardie eat all the babies?? They really are some stupid people!

Good luck, I hope everything will settle fine.

 

[LeosForLess]

At least you can say you owned them both

 

[goReptiles]

Wow what a story! I hope all goes well for you. It sounds like you have a leg to press charges animal cruelty and assault, at least.

 

[fallen_angel]

That's just scary, I can't believe that the owner had those babies housed with the adult and waved a baby right in front of him!! We commend you for what you did, if only law enforcement could see the situation for what it really is. We wish you the best of luck and hope that everything turns out all right for you. This isn't going to affect your new job or anything is it?

 

[Pookachu]

Thanks ... I am definitely going to press for the assault on their part. I am not happy with having hurt someone but im content with damages already done as far as the assault department goes. As long as I do not get burned for it im fine with that.

The animal cruelty aspect i wouldn't think would be something I would charge them with but probably more building a case against them and letting the state or appropriate organization deal with it.

I think I should be ok with the job interview (which is this coming thursday). I just need to get hired before the court stuff is done. Assuming the worst, technically that cannot be held against me until (unless) im officially proven guilty.

 

[paulnj]

You need to call the ASPCA, HUMANE SOCIETY, ANIMAL CONTROL, FISH AND GAME.......

Then you need to press charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

I would have done worse had they assaulted me by putting their hands on me in a threatening way. That in itself is grounds for self defense within reason and those injuries are within reason.

 

[Pookachu]

As far as updates.. not much really considering its the weekend.

Where I left it off with my lawyer is that he is going to involve a colleague of his that specializes in animal cruelty cases. So that person is going to be doing what he can on his part as far as prosecuting the store (also involving various organizations as well) and also with helping build my defense.

My lawyer is going to be concentrating on the assault aspect of it.

According to my lawyer, worst case scenario, I will not be going to jail.. fines or probation maybe .. but no jail time. But that is worst case scenario, for the most part he is confident that there shouldn't be any problems with getting this ruled as self defense.

- -

This is really more in response to some of the messages i've gotten from individuals (nothing bad) and I just wanted to clear up a couple things..

1) While what transpired before hand revolves around the treatment of their animals .. My involvement in the physical confrontation aspect was purely due to self defense and no other reason.

2) to quote one comment i received .. I do not have or tried to imply that I have "Mad Skillz". The other guys were just clumsy.

Also, I do want to note, that it's actually pretty hard to swing a bat in the middle an aisle.

- -

Anyways, rest of this week is going to be spent studying SQL for the interview. Will keep everyone posted on how it goes.

 

[Gecko]

I wonder why they arn't going after the store people for useing unreasonable force. I mean people joke about it, but you really don't have the right to do anything to someone on your property. Like you can't shoot someone in the back to kill when they are running away in most places, etc.

 

[Rep-Tails]

I have been in stores and wanna speak my mind so bad, but my wife grabs me and makes me leave. I know it sucks but that is a awsome story. I cant stand stores like that. I wish there was a way to get them all shut down. They deserve it. I wish you good luck with all this Eugene, and thank you for doing what was right at the time.

 

[rhino43grr]

it's too bad there weren't other customers in there at the time (at least i'm assuming so since you didn't mention it)
it's basically going to come down to your word against theirs unless your lawyer is pretty good and can turn the crappy reptile care against them.
seems to me like this could get pretty outrageous actually because if they get you for the altercation they'll surely try to weasel damages to the store and medical stuff against you too, hopefully you get a judge that's not afraid of reptiles.