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The owner of the Purple Seahorse Pet Store in Rutland says he wants to give the teens who stole a banana ball python snake from his shop the chance to do the right thing.
Kai Heinrich owns the store at Highway 33 and Hollywood Road North and says he has video of three people who entered his store Saturday afternoon just before 1 p.m. and managed to take off with a $500 python.
"I don't want to slander somebody and make them lose the next five years of their life or the opportunity to get a job here in Kelowna or anything like that."
Instead, Heinrich posted photos and a description of what he believes happened.
"I'm a dad. If my kid messed up, I would rather just say 'can we deal with this on the side' as opposed to this, causing a criminal record or anything like that, but we're talking about a $400 or $500 snake. This is not a small animal," Heinrich says.
The video shows three people enter his store at 12:47 p.m. Saturday. While the storekeeper was preparing to feed the snake, two of the three suspects managed to distract the employee while the other suspect stole the snake.
"They were literally just playing point guard and then after that they stuffed it in the backpack and they left," says Heinrich, adding he wants the snake back and is worried about its health.
"It's really unfortunate the care and attention it's not going to get. You can clearly see these people are just looking for a good score and kind of want to grab something that's a high price cool-looking item.
"From what I've understood they left my store, they bussed down to the mall. She was seen repeatedly showing the snake off wandering around (Orchard Park) mall, having it wrapped around her hands and that sort of thing."
Heinrich describes the suspects as "probably 13 or 14 years old with very little parental guidance."
Two of the teens had long dark hair and a third had long dirty blonde hair, he said.
"One had a small build wearing a vastly oversized light blue hoodie and a black backpack," Heinrich continued. "One was dressed with a red long-sleeve top, having a white number 8 on the sleeve and a black puffer vest, while the last of the three was wearing all black."
He said it's clear from the surveillance footage that the thieves don't know how to care for the snake properly.
Heinrich says anyone with information can call the store at 250-763-7300.
