Hartland Man Who Tracked Stolen Stuffed Alligator Shares Story

After three men were bound over to stand trial Friday for stealing a 14-foot-long stuffed alligator, the Hartland man who kept the reptile in his pole barn and tracked the suspects to a nearby mudbogging party said it was tough that night to hold his emotions in check.

Jeremy Swanson's Deerfield Township property already had been broken into five times within a week-and-a-half, but here was his chance to do something about the latest break-in — so he started talking to the men whom police say were intoxicated and had tied the gator with ropes atop a Ford F-150 pickup, driving it around through a valley of water, mud and muck with other four-wheel drive and off-road vehicles.

"I was pretty furious," said Swanson outside the courtroom of 53rd District Court Judge Carol Sue Reader in Howell. "But I said, 'This (alligator) is the coolest thing I've ever seen, do you mind if I take some pictures?'"

Now the trio — 55-year-old Douglas E. Ward and 60-year-old Roy A. Griffith, both of Linden, and John E. Sanborn, 53, of Harrison — have waived their preliminary exams on charges of breaking-and-entering.

The men next will be scheduled for pre-trial hearings before Livingston Circuit Judge David Reader. Ward and Griffith are free on personal bond; Sanborn is being held in the Livingston County Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash or surety bond.

Police credit Swanson's detective work that began when he followed muddy tire tracks after discovering that his gate and padlock had been broken and the barn ransacked.

"They were very identifiable, and they must've been drunk because the truck kept swerving," Swanson says.

The trail led to rural area off Latson Road, ending about 100 yards from the party — in a sport where the goal for participants is typically to drive a vehicle a set length and not get stuck. He said he found the stolen gator in the bed of a pickup truck whose tires matched the imprint he had been following. It was then when Swanson said he casually asked the three men in the truck where they obtained the stuffed animal and says they boasted about getting it in Florida.

After their arrest, the men were taken to Saint Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital in Howell for blood-alcohol tests. All were over the legal limit of 0.08 blood alcohol level for driving a motor vehicle in Michigan. Ward was at 0.4, Sanborn 0.32 and Griffith at 0.29, according to police.

"When I found out it was older men and they were drinking, I lost (sympathy)," says Swanson, who believes the same three men are involved in the other break-ins.

Livingston Sheriff Bob Bezotte, who previously said the cases may be related, has said Swanson was key to the investigation.

"I was really impressed with the homeowner," Bezotte said in July 7 Hartland Patch article about the theft. "He did a fabulous job. He wasn't confrontational. He didn't take action himself. He called police and let us do our job."

Swanson says the break-ins have caused major upheavals in his life — he lost his job soon after the burglaries and he and his family have moved. But with Swanson having recently procured a new job, he says he hopes it's a new beginning.