Free Republic

LAKELAND, Florida - Lakeland police responded to Lake Hunter following a 911 call from fishermen who reported seeing an alligator with a human body in its mouth on Tuesday morning. Police say that the alligator swam away but that they were able to recover the body. According to Lakeland Police spokesperson Sergeant Gary B. Gross, the body appeared to have been in the lake for more than a day and it is unknown if the person was attacked by the alligator. No identification has been made yet on the body which appears to be a male of unknown age. The...

Two Florida hunters tracked down a monstrous alligator and the photos are breathtaking. The gator was shot at Outwest Farms, an alligator hunting company in Okeechobee, measuring just under 15 feet and weighing in at over 800 pounds. The farm's owners discovered the gator in a cattle pond during a guided hunt. They believe the gator had been helping itself to some of their cows. The gator was so big that a farm tractor was needed to pull it from the pond.

PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. - A giant gator killed during a guided hunt on a Florida farm could be one of the largest on record in the state. Outwest Farms in Okeechobee posted a picture of the dead gator on its Facebook page Saturday. The picture showed the gator's carcass strung up on a John Deere front-end loader with a chain around its neck. The post said the gator measured just shy of 15 feet.

An accused burglar is dead after Brevard County deputies said he hid in a pond while on the run and was killed by an 11-foot-long alligator. Matthew Riggins, 22, of Palm Bay was reported missing Nov. 13. His body was found 10 days later floating in a pond near Latan Court and Barefoot Circle, in Barefoot Bay. Investigators said it had the makings of a gator attack. Shortly before Riggins was reported missing, he called his girlfriend and told her he'd be in the area breaking into homes, deputies said. "He was going to do burglaries in the Barefoot Bay...

A suspected burglar has been killed by an alligator while hiding out in a pond. The body of Matthew Riggins, 22, was found in water in Barefoot Bay in Florida ten days after he was reported missing. Police said Riggins was attacked by an 11-foot long alligator while he was hiding out after a series of planned break-ins. Before he was reported missing, Riggins called his girlfriend to tell her he would be in the area breaking into homes.

A burglary suspect has been attacked and killed by an 11-foot alligator while trying to escape from police officers. The remains of 22-year-old Matthew Riggins, a resident of Palm Bay, Florida, were found in a lake in Barefoot Bay on November 23, ten days after he was reported missing. On the evening of November 10 local residents in Barefoot Bay had called the police to report two men dressed in black who'd been acting suspiciously behind their homes. Police launched a search with a helicopter and a K9 unit and, according to deputies, Riggins called his girlfriend on the phone...

A suspected burglar jumped in a Florida lake apparently hiding from law enforcement before an 11-foot alligator killed him, investigators said Monday. His hand and foot reportedly turned up inside the animal's stomach. Brevard County Sheriff's Maj. Tod Goodyear says 22-year-old Matthew Riggins told his girlfriend he would be in Barefoot Bay to commit burglaries with another suspect. Authorities received calls Nov. 13 about two suspicious men in black walking behind homes and investigated. Riggins was reported missing the next day.

Palm Bay, FL – A 22-year-old man reportedly out to burglarize a few homes in Brevard County found out the hard way that crime doesn’t pay. According to the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office, a burglary suspect they were actively looking for on Nov. 13 realized deputies were hot on his trail and chose to hide near Barefoot Bay lake. That decision proved fatal. While hiding near the water, it seems the burglary suspect, identified as Matthew Riggins, ran afoul of an 11-foot alligator. Seeing easy prey, the gator attacked.

An 11-foot, 400-pound alligator game officials say was shot and killed without a permit has been identified as the beast that killed a late-night swimmer at a Southeast Texas marina. Texas game officials say the alligator was shot in the head and killed Monday afternoon in Adams Bayou in Orange, near where Tommie Woodward's maimed body was found early Friday. Justice of the Peace Rodney Price of Orange County Precinct 4 said remains found inside the carcass were identified as those of the 28-year-old Orange man. An autopsy determined Woodward died by drowning but lost his left arm below the...

Orange County Police were called to Burkart’s Marina near the Louisiana state line early Friday morning.... Orange County Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told CNN affiliate KFDM that Woodward ignored verbal warnings and a posted “No Swimming Alligators” sign and seemed to mock the deadly creatures before going in the water. “He removed his shirt, removed his billfold … someone shouted a warning and he said ‘blank the alligators’ and jumped into the water and almost immediately yelled for help,” Price said. The “No Swimming Alligators” sign was posted this week after a 10-foot alligator was spotted in the...

Richard Jones was exploring Ocala National Forest with his family when they captured a photo of a raccoon balancing on an alligator.A Florida man exploring Ocala National Forest has captured an unusual photo of what appears to be a raccoon riding an alligator. Richard Jones, of Palatka, told several local media outlets Sunday that he and his family were searching the Oaklawaha River for alligators, when his son accidentally startled a raccoon out of its hiding place. "It must have been asleep because it stumbled toward the water and hoped on top of the gator we were watching," Jones...

News 96.5 - Orlando AVOYELLES, LOUISIANA — This video gives a whole new meaning to 'tailgater.' A man driving his truck tries to warn an alligator hanging out in some high grass that he's coming and the gator best get out of the way. But the alligator was not backing down and decided to defend his turf. As the truck inches closer, the annoyed gator can be seen on video lashing out before finally grabbing the front bumper in its mouth and tearing it off in a matter of seconds!

Two young kids in Goose Creek, South Carolina, are captivated by their unusual new neighbor: a 10-foot alligator. The alligator first took up residence in Sonya Gilreath's bushes Thursday morning, she told ABC News today.

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - A van struck an alligator on I-10 East, police say, triggering an accident that left one man dead. The accident happened just after 4 a.m. Friday on I-10 East near Michoud Boulevard. Officers believe that a van was traveling eastbound in the center lane of the highway when the driver struck a 5-foot alligator on the road. The van came to a complete stop after hitting the alligator and was rear-ended by a second vehicle, New Orleans police say. The driver of the second vehicle, identified only as a Mississippi man, was killed in the accident....

ENGLEWOOD, Fla. — That massive alligator is back on a golf course, and he appears to be hungry. Myakka Pines Golf Club in Englewood posted photos of the gator the staff calls “Goliath” (good name for him) on the golf course’s Facebook page. This time, the big guy is apparently in the process of devouring a turtle.

An 8-foot alligator found in a Van Nuys backyard earlier this week may have been killing and eating neighborhood pets for decades, a Los Angeles Department of Animal Services officer told the Daily News. The residents at the home in the 13200 block of Sylvan Street said they got the alligator when it was a baby and have had it ever since, Ani­mal Services Commander Mark Salazar said.

Swamp training will never be the same for Sgt. Jesse Phillips, a mortarman for the U.S. Marines, who recently participated in his first-ever alligator hunt and helped bag a Mississippi state record. The massive gator weighed 792 pounds and measured 13 1/2 feet from nose to tail. It was the largest male gator bagged in the state, with a belly girth of nearly 70 inches.

Lee McDougal saved his Golden Retriever from an alligator attack. WOFL reports that the alligator attacked the dog when McDougal was out walking her. “With all the rain the swamp area filled up a little more, she decided to jump in on the swamp side, instead of the lagoon side, and the gator didn’t want to share it with her,” McDougal explained to the station. “I reached down to grab her and grabbed the gator and just jerked him up, and when I did, I seen a big head and she went back that way and as soon as I...

It sounds like the beginning of a joke, but a guy walked into a Miami-area convenience store with quite a surprise in the box. A clerk at the Santa Ana Market in Allapattah was approached by customer Fernando Caignet Aguilera, 64, to buy some beer recently. “I just picked it up here,” Aguilera said of the alligator. “I seen it here in the grass and I tied it up.” When the subject of payment was brought up, the customer offered up a live alligator. “I went into the store to try to exchange it for a beer,” Aguilera told CBS4′s...

It wasn’t an alligator-print bag that appeared at a baggage claim at O’Hare International Airport, it was an actual alligator. A new kind of visitor caused a stir Friday after the Department of Aviation said a small alligator was discovered at Baggage Claim 3 in O’Hare Airport Friday morning. Officials said the alligator was spotted by maintenance workers underneath an escalator at Baggage Claim 3.