Reptile Collection stolen from NSW Wildlife Reserve

[Snapped]

Link to story here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-01/reptiles-stolen-from-wildlife-reserve/9005492

A collection of reptiles has been stolen from a wildlife reserve on the New South Wales' mid-north coast.



Kotara's Blackbutt Reserve said their entire reptile collection was stolen during a break-in overnight.

Among the reptiles stolen were a spotted python, an olive python, shingle back lizards and frilled-neck lizards.

The City of Newcastle posted on social media asking for anyone with information to call police.

Some locals took to Facebook to suggest their reptiles could be borrowed by the reserve for the exhibits.

The wildlife reserve, located in Newcastle, said the daily reptile show was now cancelled until further notice.

 

[Fall guys]

https://www.facebook.com/walkaboutwildlife/posts/1853971327961379

Another collection stolen very recently.

Time to lock up your outdoor babies people

 

[Yellowtail]

Obviously someone knows who did this and you can only hope they do the right thing. Any reptile collection open to the public needs cctv and other security, sad but thats the world we live in. Cammo had a number of lizards stolen a few months back but they caught the creeps after he put cctv images on Facebook, unfortunately some of the animals were not recovered, used to pay for drugs.
Personally I have spent a lot of money on walls, fences, electric gate, locks, lights, alarms, cctv, ir cameras and "other" security and they need to get past 2 german shepherds plus my neighbours have good security and cctv. Only people I know well get near my reptiles and friends need to phone first to get in. I even read my own power and gas meters.
Keeping your address secret when selling/buying reptiles may not be enough because of concerns over security of NSW NPWS and other databases.

 

[Pauls_Pythons]

Will never understand why any wildlife center where animals are on display to the public don't have cctv. Its a big enough worry at home as YT points out......We have several 'large' Rotties to protect our collection but even that likely wouldn't stop someone who really wants to get in.

 

[Yellowtail]

Will never understand why any wildlife center where animals are on display to the public don't have cctv. Its a big enough worry at home as YT points out......We have several 'large' Rotties to protect our collection but even that likely wouldn't stop someone who really wants to get in.

I used to breed black cockatoos back in the days they were worth a bit and you have the same problem with birds. My shepherds are trained to only eat food presented to them in a certain way which makes it hard to poison them.

 

[SpottedPythons]

Blackbutt did have CCTV, but no positive identifying traits (eg. faces) were caught on camera. The intruders broke the lock, smashed the glass and grabbed everything. They were very well prepared, with the right amount of bags and everything. Then they took off in their vehicle.

 

[Imported_tuatara]

so they knew how many there were? sounds like it could've (partially) been an inside job, or they'd been planning such for the weeks leading up to it.

 

[SpottedPythons]

Yeah... I asked someone at the Reptile Park about it... not an inside job, they think, but it was definitely well planned.

 

[dragonlover1]

Makes me worry about moving our lacies and frillies outside.And my son was wondering why I wanted to put CCTV outside.

 

[pinefamily]

Makes me worry about moving our lacies and frillies outside.And my son was wondering why I wanted to put CCTV outside.

Still got a bluey? He'll take care of intruders.

 

[Scutellatus]

Still got a bluey? He'll take care of intruders.

Dogs are like locks, they only keep the honest people out.

 

[dragonlover1]

Still got a bluey? He'll take care of intruders.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Darren,but I don't think a bluey is going to scare off someone trying to steal my lacies or frillies! If they aren't scarey enough a blue tongue is doing nothing to scare off reptile thieves,might scare off a few snails,maybe.

 

[pinefamily]

Our last bluey would let people in, but not let them out.

 

[Imported_tuatara]

don't think you'd need a guard for the lacies, they'd take care of them themselves.

 

[Fall guys]

Dogs are like locks, they only keep the honest people out

I was hoping you meant a blue cattle dog :s

I was meant to quote @pinefamily but I guess I was too tired, first thing I did this morning

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Living in the Macleay Valley years ago, I had 3 German Shepherds which we used to breed, 2 pups of mine, (Flash & Darcy) actually ended up working on the police force in Western Australia... the right dogs keep everyone out, honest or dishonest. The dishonest people are only kidding themselves if they wanna take on 3 shepherds. One bloke found that out the hard way on New Year's day 2000. Climbed the 6ft fence after repeated warnings to move on, ignoring me and abusing my dogs repeatedly to the point they'd worked themselves into a frenzy and were frothing from their mouths... he needed urgent medical attention after scaling the fence, his clothes and himself were shredded... the cops came a while later to apparently "shoot the dogs"... they were told to go right ahead but be warned if they do, they'd be buried in the hill alongside the dogs. That was that, they left without further ado. Cctv and such is good if you want recorded footage of a crime being committed on your property so you can watch it over and over and get angrier and angrier at the system and how it fails decent people... footage that can be used as evidence for a prosecution to not even happen... or, If you instead want to prevent it, get some good dogs. Simple.

 

[Yellowtail]

Dogs only work with serious bad guys if they are trained not to take food thrown over the fence.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

Dogs only work with serious bad guys if they are trained not to take food thrown over the fence.

You couldn't give my dogs a sideways look let alone food. Never had cctv or high tech security, just dogs. Never had any dramas with wannabe crims.

 

[Scutellatus]

If you have something that someone wants badly enough dogs will not stop them. As Yellowtail said baiting is easy for someone to do. It would have to be a very well trained animal to not take a bait when you aren't around.

 

[Flaviemys purvisi]

If you have something that someone wants badly enough dogs will not stop them. As Yellowtail said baiting is easy for someone to do. It would have to be a very well trained animal to not take a bait when you aren't around.

I've got turtles that no one else in the country or the world has... I'll back the dogs. Short of rocking up with an RPG, no one is going to try.