Bad Deal with Baccus/Mark Breen-Klein

Reluctantly, I have to report a bad deal with former taxidermy.net regular Baccus, aka Mark Breen-Klein of the New York area.

Earlier this year, I posted an offer in the Skulls and Skeletons section to give a grey kangaroo to anyone in exchange for the articulation of a large iguana that belonged to an acquaintance of mine. The kangaroo was mostly cleaned and whitened, except I left one arm and one leg frozen to aid with articulation. The iguana was mostly beetle-cleaned but still had flesh on all the joints.

Baccus was one of a number of people who offered to do the articulation in exchange for the roo, but I chose him because I liked his previous work and he told me via pm that the roo would go to an osteological collection that he had been putting together.

I told him there was no rush to do the work, but after six months I e-mailed him to ask him if he had had time to start on it yet. He did not respond to my e-mail or PM after more than a week, so I contacted another member of this site who I knew was an associate of his. I'll refer to that individual as "A" for privacy's sake.

A made it clear that he and Baccus were no longer on speaking terms, but as a favor he contacted Baccus and one of Baccus's other former associates ("B", who may or may not be a member here). Baccus e-mailed me after A contacted him about it. He claimed that, shortly after I sent the specimens, A had destroyed both of them, along with many other specimens belonging to Baccus and his customers. A denied this. A showed me evidence (a text message from B) that Baccus had attempted to sell a kangaroo shortly after receiving mine, presumably the same one I sent, and he (B) said that he ended up with Baccus's specimens after the falling out between Baccus and A, and that he had destroyed anything that wasn't clean and sold the rest without IDing them to try to collect a portion of an outstanding debt owed to him by Baccus.

For the past two weeks or so, I have been attempting to get in touch with Baccus and hoping that he would show some sign of interest in making things right. I told him to either reimburse me $300 for the kangaroo and iguana or to send me a completed articulation from his collection, assuming he had any that weren't sold or destroyed. He has not responded to my calls or e-mails and I don't believe he has any intention of doing so.

If you read this, Mark, my offer still stands. If you are currently doing business with Baccus and need more information, please PM me and I will help you if I possibly can.

 

If anybody has any advice on what I can do at this point, I would greatly appreciate it. Mark has not contacted me at all and has shown no interest whatsoever in making things right. Mark seems to have burned bridges with most of his professional and personal contacts so nobody knows where he is anymore or how to find him.

 

I found out Baccus/Mark Breen-Klein lives with his parents in NJ. I sent them a registered letter two weeks ago but they didn't get it; I'm guessing Mark saw the notice that was left and destroyed it. The state police were notified three weeks ago and forwarded my case but they said it will take another 2-3 weeks for an investigator to review the case. If anybody else is having similar issues with Mark, please let me know and I'll tell the investigator if/when he/she calls me.