300-Pound Gator Busted for Trespassing

An alligator out for an early morning stroll Wednesday caused quite a scene in a St. Petersburg neighborhood.

It seems the critter was stretching its legs along the road in the 2900 block of 35th Avenue South when someone noticed it and called police. When St. Petersburg Police officers arrived they found the wanderer taking a break, “sitting on the front porch of a home leaning on the front door,” the agency reported on its Facebook page.

Not quite equipped to handle a trespasser of the reptilian kind, police officers called for some help from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. A trapper was sent to the scene to bring the unwanted guest into custody, the agency reported.

Since the Pinellas County Jail doesn’t have an alligator intake protocol, the beast was transported to a local farm, Fox news reported. The critter weighed an estimated 300 pounds and is believed to be at least 20 years old, the station reported. Police say the beast measured at least 8 feet in length.

While warmer weather is the typical time for alligator sightings, that fact didn’t seem to ease residents’ minds much.

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“Thank God someone did see him because normally we’re out at that time going to work,” resident Annette Garcia told WFLA. She was sleeping when the gator made its appearance and was awakened by the sounds of officers near her home.

St. Petersburg’s trespassing gator isn’t the first wanderer to make headlines this year. In April, a critter paid a Brevard County McDonald’s a visit and in May a gator brought traffic to a halt on U.S. 41 in the Fort Myers area. A horse and an alligator also had a bit of a sparring match in Odessa in late May.

Florida wildlife officials say alligator sightings are fairly common as temperatures rise.

“All reptiles are more active in the warmer months,” FWC spokesman Gary Morse told Patch. “That’s just the cold-blooded creatures’ (way). Their metabolism increases and they do become active.”

That activity has prompted so many calls over the years the state has set up a hotline to report nuisance gators. The number is 1-866-FWC-GATOR.

File photo of an alligator from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Picture of the trespassing gator in a trap from the St. Petersburg Police Department.