Tom Crutchfield

Tom Crutchfield, also known as Tommy, is an American reptile breeder known for his extensive Homestead, Florida, facility and his 1999 arrest and conviction under Operation Chameleon for trafficking in exotic animals and violating the Lacey Act, which temporarily suspended his business.

In 1981, he purchased the first documented amelanistic Burmese python from a Thai dealer, for US$21,000, after seeing the animal featured in a 1981 edition of National Geographic magazine.

The charge had little effect on business as that same year he imported sixteen Gaboon vipers and fourteen Burmese pythons via the Montgomery Zoo.

[1] In the 1997 charge, he was accused of conspiring with two German nationals, Wolfgang Kloe and Frank Lehmeyer, and a Japanese national, Kei Tomono, to illegally import over 200 reptiles and amphibians, including Madagascar tree boas, Madagascar ground boas, as well as a species of turtles, all species under the protection of CITES.,[7] Tom immediately fled to Belize, but he was extradited back to the US by officials there.

Tom was grazed by a bullet, and the situation ended when gunfire ceased and an armed body was found inside the building.