A Texas teenager accused of trying to steal a ball python named “Chompers” at gunpoint was charged with aggravated robbery, court documents obtained Thursday show.
The 17-year-old was booked Wednesday on two counts and is being held at the Harris County Jail, jail records show.
The teen allegedly displayed a gun while threatening a woman over the snake and placed her “in fear of imminent bodily injury and death,” according to a criminal complaint filed Monday.
A second person accused of participating in the Oct. 2 robbery southeast of downtown Houston remained at large Thursday, NBC affiliate KPRC of Houston reported.
The attempted robbery occurred after a woman posted the snake on a selling app and agreed to meet a potential buyer at an apartment complex parking lot, the Houston Police Department said in a statement last month.
The woman, Ariel Giron, told KPRC that she agreed to sell the ball python for $200. A girl arrived at the parking lot with a few dollars and said her brother would send her the rest later, Giron told the station.
As they talked, two men approached her minivan, she told the station. One of them had a gun and demanded the snake, she said.
Moments after they arrived, the pair could be seen fleeing Giron’s vehicle, no snake in hand, according to security video released by the department.
“I’m guessing he was scared of the snake,” Giron told KPRC. “The snake kind of went by him and he jumped back.”
“Now I guess he’s staying with me,” she added.
A lawyer for the teen could not immediately be reached.
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