"Brings New Meaning to the Phrase'Take a Bite Out of Crime'"
I'd love to be able to claim the above quip as my own, but it was in the reader comments to this news story which I saw on Of Arms & the Law.
Suspected Car Thief Eaten by Gator
Man Died After Fleeing From Police Into Pond on Fla. Indian Reservation
By DAVID SCHOETZ
Nov. 13, 2007 —
Authorities in Florida are saying very little about an incident last week in which a suspected car thief reportedly fled from police into a small pond on an Indian reservation and was eaten by an alligator.
ABC News' South Florida affiliate WPLG reported that Thursday the Miccosukee Police Department, which handles law enforcement for the Miccosukee Indian Reservation, along with K-9 units from the nearby Sweetwater Police Department, responded to a call about two men breaking into vehicles in the parking lot of the tribe's 300-room resort and casino.
Police reportedly captured one of the men, but the other dived into a nearby retention pond ignoring a sign that warned about dangerous alligators in the pond.
Eyewitnesses told WPLG that bystanders on the bank of the pond saw the gator, which the station reported was nicknamed "Poncho" by resort employees, and urged the man to swim back to shore, but he eventually screamed before disappearing underwater. The body of the man, who has not been identified by police, was discovered by divers Friday, 50 feet below the water's surface.
Gator Trapped, Put Down
The alligator that authorities believe is the one that killed the man was trapped and killed, and is now being held at All American Gator in Pembroke Park, Fla.
Under Florida state law, any alligator that kills a person must be destroyed.
Brian Wood, owner of All American Gator, told WPLG that the Miami-Dade County medical examiner hold him to hold the reptile for inspection. Neither the medical examiner's office nor Wood was available for comment, but Wood reportedly told the local station that it's not uncommon for a gator to behave defensively.
"Some gators have a nasty disposition, and he was a nasty gator," Wood told WPLG.
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