I’m from Florida. I’ve lived here for the past fifteen years, and the first lesson I learned was no matter how hot it gets, stay out of the water. It may even be fair to say that alligators are the dominant species in Florida. You’ll find them in your swimming pool, sunning themselves on golf courses, walking down Main Street, and sometimes you’ll even find them under your home. There have even been a few cases of alligators knocking themselves against people’s doors trying to come in. Can you imaging the fear and panic when someone looks through the peephole of their front door, only to find an eight-foot alligator waiting to come in?
Yes, it’s true. Alligators show up in the strangest places. But no matter how unusual or surprising the location, one thing is certain. Stay out of the water, it belongs to the gators. You see, alligators have an inside track to Florida that would put Map Quest to shame. They travel through sewers and drainage pipes and their special hangouts are ditches and retention ponds. When you see water in a community area, on the side of the road, or when you’re taking your Sunday drive and it’s 90’ outside there’s one rule, “Stay out of the water.”
The alligators make life a bit difficult in Florida. You can’t enjoy fishing without looking over your shoulder, you can’t just take a quick dip in the nearest lake or pond, and you can’t enjoy a nice stroll along the water’s edge at dusk or dawn without being extremely aware that an alligator may show up at any minute. Which is why it makes me wonder if the robbery suspect who jumped in a retention pond while running from the police was a native. My guess is he isn’t, but then again, you’ll find that Florida has its share of death defying locals. These locals aren’t afraid of anything. They’ll tell you stories how when they were just knee high to their momma’s apron strings, they “wrestled with them there gators in their back yard.” But even the locals would know better than to jump in the retention ponds. I think if given the choice between a stint in jail for robbing cars or meeting your fate in the terrifying jaws of a gator, many people would walk somberly up to the police with both hands extended.
Unfortunately, a robbery suspect decided to choose the other path. While being chased by police for possibly breaking into cars, the suspect jumped into a retention pond. His friend however was caught by the police and arrested (however, he is still alive). The officials aren’t releasing the victim’s name, only that onlookers were screaming for him to get out of the water. Apparently, those who live in the area were quite aware of Poncho, the nine-foot gator who was obviously fed. He has shown no signs of being afraid of humans and as is law here in Florida, if a gator kills, then the gator must be killed. Currently, Poncho is being quarantined until an examiner can make certain that they’ve caught the right alligator.
[...] Recently a robbery suspect jumped into a retaining pond to evade police and was subsequently killed by the resident alligator. Apparently there were several people who urged him to get out but he was oblivious to the danger. Now the question is whether to exterminate the gator or not. You can read more of Charisse’s article here. cj [...]
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