Cobra man dinged $17Gs

2007-03-08

Tom Godfrey, Toronto Sun

A Toronto man whose deadly Egyption cobra went missing and forced the evacuation of two homes was jailed yesterday for two more months and told to pay $17,000 in lost rent to landlords.

Helder Claro, 39, a former pet store owner, was given credit for five months he served awaiting tria, bringing his remaining sentence to a year.

"This is the stuff of nightmares," Madame Justice Leslie Pringle said.

"It was sheer luck that someone was not bitten."

Several longtime tenants were forced to move from their Church St. semi-detached after the reptile bolted last September.

"The missing cobra may yet be alive, lurking in the basement of the home below the frost lin, posing a continuing danger," Pringle said, adding it can survive without food for as long as a year.
The dwellings were ordered closed by the city until the missing cobra is located.

Claro, who was found guilty of mischief and common nuisance, had kept three deadly snakes at a semi-detached he rented at 18 Church Street. Two are now at the Toronto Zoo.

Claro was arrested in October after a six-foot cobra was spotted in 16 Church Street. A search of his apartment turned up a parrot, frog, two lizards and a six-foot gaboon viper. Another cobra was found in his locker.