Hibernating Tarantulas Stolen From Crawlspace of Georgia Home

Five sleeping tarantulas were taken from a crawlspace of a Georgia man’s home and sold to a local pet store.

Austell resident Dwayne Melton said he received a call from AniMart Pets, a pet store that deals with exotic animals and was told that someone purchased five tarantulas they believed to be from his collection.

Melton said that during the winter his 18 pet tarantulas hibernate in individual containers he places in the crawlspace under his home. After the phone call, he looked under his home and discovered that five of his pets were gone.

Below is a video report on this story from WSB Atlanta.

The store gave Melton the man’s name that came in with the spiders. He was recognized as Brandon Lee Davis. Davis told investigators that he obtained the spiders from a another person. Davis was arrested and charged with theft by receiving.

The tarantulas are worth $60 each, although the pet store gave him $60 for all five of the stolen pets.