6-foot alligator found lurking under family’s car in middle of night, Florida cops say
A predawn standoff between man and reptile ensued in a Florida parking lot over the weekend after someone found a six-foot alligator lurking under a car.
The startling discovery was made around 3 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 6, in the parking lot of an apartment community in Immokalee, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. The town is about 35 miles southeast of downtown Fort Myers.
“The gator hid under a resident’s vehicle just before he came outside to retrieve something from his car,” deputies said.
The man’s reaction was not revealed. But a series of photos released by the sheriff’s office show the alligator was under the engine and virtually invisible to any unsuspecting passersby.
Germaine James, grandson of the car’s owner, was walking toward the vehicle when deputies told him to “freeze” and pointed out the alligator, according to WBBH.
“Goosebumps everywhere, like, dang,” James told the TV station. “Never been this close to an alligator. It was nerve-wracking.”
A licensed alligator trapper used a metal trapline pole — wire collar attached to a steel pole — to pull the reptile out from under the vehicle. However, video posted on YouTube by WBBH shows it did not come without a fight.
The alligator is shown hissing and thrashing, with its jaws wide. It then starts rolling to thwart efforts at taping its mouth shut.
Once subdued, the gator was taken “to a more suitable environment’ and freed, the sheriff’s office said.
Social media commenters joked that finding an alligator in a parking lot is not the strangest part of the story, at least by Florida standards.
“This is a normal event in Florida, gators under cars, but what was the person retrieving from his car at 3 am?” one person wrote.
“Poor gator ... Just moving from one lake to the other. At least it waited to the middle of the night when everyone SHOULD be sleeping,” another said.
This story was originally published November 9, 2021 at 8:24 AM with the headline "6-foot alligator found lurking under family’s car in middle of night, Florida cops say."