Woman Puts Alligator in Her Back Seat

AP ^ | February 25, 2003

[Indy Pendance]

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Leslie Strickland said she had nothing but good intentions when she loaded a badly hurt 6-foot alligator into the back seat of her car and took it home to Port Charlotte.

The 49-year-old woman had hit the animal with her car Friday night and went back to rescue it Saturday - but wound up spending a night in jail, charged with possession of an alligator, a felony in Florida.

Police also charged her with driving with a suspended license and walking away from the scene of an accident, leaving the injured alligator in the back seat.

"I knew I was in trouble, and I panicked and I left," Strickland said by phone Monday. "I had a felony in the back seat, and I just didn't know what to do."

On Saturday, Strickland said she drove the gator home, wetted it down with hose and then tried unsuccessfully to reach somebody with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

After neighbors told her it was illegal to have the animal, she loaded it in the car again and drove off in search of a pond to release it.

But the alligator started to thrash its tail, she said. Distracted, she veered off the road and hit a mailbox. Witnesses told police she tried to drive off, but her car got stuck in the ditch. So she got out and walked away.

Police arrested Strickland at her home nearby, adding a charge of resisting arrest after she struggled with officers who tried to handcuff her. She said she "freaked out" at the prospect of going to jail.

The game commission finally removed the alligator from the car; it died later.

[joesnuffy]

We got thousands of damned Timber Rattlers in the neighborhood & surrounding hills
and the danged DNR has them protected...with big fines for killing the things...
regardless of how many humans or pets they bite..

[FeliciaCat]

How does one get a 6 FOOT ALLIGAT0R in the BACK SEAT of their car!???!?!?!?!?!?!? What am I missing?

[appeal2]

I am sure you thought it, but I'll say it, She was up to elbows in alligators.

[Dutch14]

VERY carefully....

[Jonah Hex]

"Ah cite the defendant for contempt for bring that cold slimey reptile into ma court! Anyway's ah thought that 'gator was dead."

"Y'honor, that's my lawyer."

[blackdog]

How does one comply with those damn seatbelt laws with a six foot alligator? They charged her with everything else!

[mhking]

"Hold muh beer 'n watch this!" PING....

If you want on or off this list, please let me know!

[small voice in the wilderness]

"I had a felony in the back seat, and I just didn't know what to do."

She must've wrestled hard with her dilema.

[FreedomPoster]

>>... they don't have moose in Floriduh...the aligators keep them away!

They're dissin' your boyz over here. ;-)

[LBGA]

After yesterday's thread, y'all just have to see this one!

[Grampa Dave]

What a great story. Probably another bleeding heart Bambi lover got to enjoy nature at its best.

[FreedomPoster]

Couldn't resist.

Amos Moses
Jerry Reed
(Reed)
Super Hits Of The 70's, Vol. 3

Yeah here comes Amos
Now Amos Moses was a Cajun
He lived by himself in the swamp
He hunted alligator for a living
He'd just knock them in the head with a stump
The Louisiana law gonna get you Amos
It ain't legal hunting alligator down in the swamp boy

Now everyone blamed his old man
For making him mean as a snake
When Amos Moses was a boy
His daddy would use him for alligator bait
Tie a rope around his neck and throw him in the swamp
Alligator man in the Louisiana bayou
About forty-five minutes south of Tippitoe Louisiana
Lived a man called Dr. Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah
They raised up a son who could eat his weight in groceries
Named him after a man of the cloth
Called him Amos Moses

Now the folks around south Louisiana
Said Amos was a hell of a man
He could trap the biggest meanest alligator
And he'd just use one hand
That's all he got left cause an alligator bit it
Left arm gone clear up to the elbow

Well the sheriff caught wind that Amos was up in the swamp
Trading alligator skins
So he snuck in the swamp gonna get the boy
But he never came out
Well I wonder where the Louisiana sheriff went to
Well you can sure get lost in the Louisiana bayou
About forty-five minutes south of Tippitoe Louisiana
Lived a cat named Dr. Mills South and his pretty wife Hannah
They raised up a son who could eat his weight in groceries
Named him after a man of the cloth
Called him Amos Moses

I know son
Make it count son
About forty-five minutes south of Tippitoe Louisiana...

[mhking]

"Hello, 911..."

"I need a bambulance!"

"Where are you, sir?""I'm in the mutha-f*****' phone booth!"

??!!

(after much in the way of attempted conversation) "What happened sir?"

"After I hit the deer, I put it in the back seat, but after I started driving, it woke up!"

Guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes if you can ever find the audio file of it...

[blackdog]

"You see your honor, A woman and an alligator walk into a bar....Well, to make a long story short....."

[BlueLancer]

"...... they don't have moose in Floriduh...the aligators keep them away!"

Well, they must be p*ss-weak Møøse then. Up in Michigan, where I used to live, we didn't have any alligators because the Møøse kept biting them.

Someone told them that they were somebody's sister.

[Indy Pendance]

[DainBramage]

"Like I said your honor, the officer said to take him to the zoo,

and he had so much fun I thought we would go to six flags tomorrow."

[Xenalyte]

We got thousands of damned Timber Rattlers in the neighborhood & surrounding hills and the danged DNR has them protected...with big fines for killing the things... regardless of how many humans or pets they bite..

Sneaky question: if you kill 'em and put the meat in chili (like Xena's Dad used to do), and dispose of the skin, how does the DNR know what you've done?

[mhking]

if you kill 'em and put the meat in chili (like Xena's Dad used to do), and dispose of the skin, how does the DNR know what you've done?

"Nice shoes..."

[dware]

Is possession of a Camen a lesser charge?

I believe it depends on the state you live in? I live in COlorado, and have a 5 foot boa constrictor & two piranha, but to get a camen (which I pondered for a short time, and decided against), you have to have a state license.