City workers remove alligator from Jacksonville drain

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — City workers removed an alligator from a drain in a Northside neighborhood on Wednesday after neighbors say it had been trapped there since Friday.

It looked like a scene from the zoo, but the close encounter with a huge reptile tied to a rope and pulled from a drain happened in a Northside neighborhood.

"His hind legs were as big as my biceps and he was very long. That was a full grown gator," said Frank Hampton.

Hampton said the eight-foot gator has been stuck in the drain since Friday. Our camera got a couple of up and close personal shots, showing just how long and big the gator really was.

"He had his snout under where the water drips down, so that's evidently where he died. As big as he is, if he would have gotten a hold of somebody, he would have done some serious damage, probably killed him," said Hampton.

Neighbors say they were concerned about the gator being just feet away from their homes, but that wasn't the only thing on their minds -- the harsh smell was lingering in their noses.

"I been smelling it for about three days," said Hampton.

Hampton said the gator probably entered into the drain through an opening.

"He may have come in the drain when he was much smaller and gone back out and he got in this time and he's much larger and couldn't get back out, tried to turn around and it just couldn't get out.

The entire removal process took about 30 minutes.

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