Thieves stole 7,000 creepy insects and spiders from a museum. But why?

Most people try to stay far away from hissing cockroaches, desert hairy scorpions, and venomous, six-eyed sand spiders. Not the team of thieves that hit the Philadelphia Insectarium and Butterfly Pavilion over four days in late August.

They made off with those critters and nearly 7,000 other insects, spiders and lizards — more than 80 percent of the institution’s collection.