What to Know
- A man looking for fishing bait in the woods on Staten Island got a quite the surprise when he found a three-foot alligator
- The man used a fishing net to capture the creature and eventually brought it to dry land, where he taped the gator's mouth shut
- The alligator was taken to an animal care center in Brooklyn, and police are not sure where it came from
A man looking for fishing bait in ponded rain water in the woods on Staten Island got a quite the surprise when he happened across an animal more frequently found in New Orleans, not New York.
Don Walters caught the three-foot alligator Tuesday afternoon near Cranford Avenue, and his first instinct? “I’m gonna catch it.”
“I’ve seen skunk, groundhogs, beaver, Fox deer... an alligator? Go figure,” said Walters.
Walters used a fishing net to capture the creature and eventually brought it to dry land, with his wife Kim recording the whole thing. Walters was able to tape the gator’s mouth shut before calling police.
“Like three times I had to say it was an alligator. Yes I promise I’m not crazy, I’m not stoned ... not delusional,” Kim said she told the 911 operator. “I just got off work and we just caught an alligator.”
Police are not sure where the animal came from, while neighbors believe someone must have been keeping the gator as a pet and couldn’t take care of it anymore, so they let it go.
Local
The alligator was taken to an animal care center in Brooklyn. It was not immediately clear where it would go from there.
