Ball pythons and CBD oil: Tennessee gas station robbed in the weirdest way ever

True crime stories don’t get much more bizarre than this one: A robbery went down recently at a Denmark, TN gas station not with a gun or a knife, or even the threat of a weapon, but two ball pythons, instead, according to a Crime Stoppers post on social media.

Meanwhile, the alleged perpetrators waved the animals around not for thousands of dollars in cash or merchandise. They made off with just $400 in CBD oil, the Madison County Sheriff’s Office said. And stranger still, it’s the second Tennessee snake-involved incident in two years.

Employees at a truck stop in Tennessee felt threatened when at least four people came into the gas station with two pythons.

“The snake is a weapon, you know,” said one of the store workers.
https://t.co/c0vlI09Kvw

— KXAN News (@KXAN_News) March 18, 2025

The ball python heist happened in mid-March this year and was captured on the Citgo truck stop surveillance cameras. In the footage, four people, two men and two women, entered the store with two ball pythons.

Mayur Raval was working with his brother that day, and he told Memphis news, WREG, “They were just waving them around and putting them on the counter. One person brought in one snake first, and then after that, he brought in another snake. One is white, and one is brown or a mix,” Raval said.

Raval said the two men then grabbed about $400 of CBD oil off the counter and drove away in a four-door sedan. He thought they wanted to take more, but the store was too crowded with other customers.

“I think they planned to successfully come here and rob the store,” Raval added, using the snakes as a weapon, he said.

Sleuths in Crime Stoppers comment thought the best place to look for clues could be the local pet shop.

“Check with local pet stores… have them look at the pics. If they have this many pythons they have to be buying frozen prey to thaw and feed them,” one comment suggested.

The 2024 snake attempted robbery

Four thieves rob store using pythons as weapons in US!

In a bizarre incident, four criminals allegedly robbed a convenience store wielding pythons in Tennessee, US.

Read:https://t.co/ZcF6HVElDz#omg #us #robbery pic.twitter.com/NT0bs4g97g

— Gulf Daily News (@GDNonline) March 18, 2025

Denmark, TN, where the recent ball python robbery happened, is about 75 miles southwest of Memphis. And there was another snake-involved robbery in Memphis just last year.

As WREG reported, in 2024, 26-year-old Reginald Cook was arrested and charged with two counts of attempted aggravated robbery after he, too, tried to rob a gas station with a snake.

The attendant alleged Cook demanded money with a 5-foot snake wrapped around his neck. He also reached into his backpack, but the person behind the counter had a gun and called 911. Proving in a snake and gun match-up, a gun wins.

Cook reportedly also had a railroad spike and a rock in his backpack so things could have been worse, but Cook backed down when the gun was drawn, and nothing was stolen and no one was injured. Cook’s family came back and apologized and offered to pay for damages the next day.

As for the Denmark CBD oil robbery, Crime Stoppers has asked anyone with information to call 731-424-8477 or use our mobile P3 app. The Madison County sheriff’s office says their car had a “drive out tag” and a trunk tied down with bungee cords.

If you’re wondering, ball pythons aren’t venomous but look intimidating, especially for any of the scores of people who are afraid of snakes. You still may not want to get bitten by one, but there was no real threat to the gas station attendant in Tennessee that day.