3 Boas Back in San Diego Zoo; 4th Slips Away

A San Diego man and his son Wednesday returned three of the four rosy boa constrictors taken from the San Diego Zoo early this week, police said.

The boy had been riding his bicycle on Morley Field Drive, in the northeast corner of Balboa Park, when he noticed a box containing four snakes, police said. He told police he took the snakes to the family home nearby and let them out in the backyard.

It wasn’t until the boy’s mother heard about the stolen snakes on the news later in the day that she realized the four adopted reptiles might be the same ones, police said.

The family tried to recapture the snakes, but managed to round up only three. The father and son took them back to the zoo late Wednesday, said Chris Peterson, zoo spokesman.

The reptile curator identified the snakes as those taken from the zoo late Tuesday or early Wednesday, Peterson said.

“The boas are very gentle, docile and mild animals,” Peterson said. “They are often kept as pets.”

He said the snakes, native to the southwestern United States, normally would be worth $100 to $150 in a pet store, but that the ones taken from the zoo were special because they were part of a captive breeding program.