Florida Family Finds Unwelcome
11-Foot Alligator In Their Kitchen
970-WFLA [Tampa, FL],
by
R.J. Johnson
Original Article
Posted By: Hazymac,
5/31/2019 1:44:24 PM
A family in Florida found themselves dealing with an unwelcome visitor Friday morning after a massive 11-foot alligator broke into their home overnight.
Officials from the city of Clearwater tweeted several photos of the "unwanted overnight visitor" to the home on Eagles Landing in Clearwater. The alligator managed to get into the family's kitchen after it entered a window. The alligator then hung out in the family's kitchen, destroying a table and even helped himself to some of the family's wine.
The homeowner told Fox 13 that she discovered the gator hanging out after hearing noises in her kitchen around 3 a.m. The gator also did some damage
Reply 1 - Posted by:
bad-hair 5/31/2019 1:57:39 PM (No. 87870)
As opposed to? a welcome one? I got a cat. He thinks he's 11 feet big. Every now and then he gets shown that he's not.
3 people like this.
Was it a Chardonnay?
1 person likes this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
JunkYardDog 5/31/2019 2:35:29 PM (No. 87885)
C ya later.....
0 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Chuzzles 5/31/2019 2:36:30 PM (No. 87886)
The article says gator broke in through a window. I have been noticing more articles and videos recently about how gators can actually climb for short distances. Like getting to an open window. This is horrifying to contemplate, and lucky for this family they apparently don't have an indoor pet, or a small child that gets up to explore. This should serve as a serious warning to everyone living in gator country, to not be tempted to leave windows open. Or maybe they need to get some metal bars for their first floor windows if they want to leave them open at night.
3 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
DVC 5/31/2019 2:49:40 PM (No. 87895)
#1, that was exactly what I was going to post.
Pretty silly headline.
Are there any kitchens where ANY alligator is welcome? Well, on second thought....
Many years ago a fish & wildlife officer friend brought a 4 ft gator to our house
to show it to us kids, and my mother, a really great woman, agreed to let him
put it on the floor in our big kitchen to show us kids about them. So, I guess
that 4 ft gator was welcome, as long as our good friend and gator expert was
there to take it home with him. Gators are neat, but not to be taken lightly,
either.
1 person likes this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
Safari Man 5/31/2019 2:50:37 PM (No. 87896)
I have a 1/2 acre pond about 75 feet from my backdoor. I'm told the previous owners used to feed the gators until one evening, they arrived home and the gators were at the backdoor expecting to be fed.
To this day, when I approach the pond with anything in my hand, the gators will start their way over towards me. They're small, though. Someday it may not be so cute.
3 people like this.
Reply 7 - Posted by:
DaddyO 5/31/2019 2:54:18 PM (No. 87899)
Global warming. The swamps have become too hot for the gators. Listen to Al Gore people!
1 person likes this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Ken M. 5/31/2019 3:06:29 PM (No. 87914)
Waiting to see some remark here about the Scientology people threatening the non-beleivers ...
0 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
RenoVet68 5/31/2019 3:35:12 PM (No. 87928)
What do you call an 11-foot-long gator? BOOTS!!
6 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
lakerman1 5/31/2019 3:54:37 PM (No. 87933)
They needed Troy Landry from Swamp People.
He would 'choot'em!
Troy needs subtitles when he speaks in his cajun/louisianan dialect.
1 person likes this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
ginadee 5/31/2019 5:40:45 PM (No. 87968)
hmmm....a nice pair of shoes and/or a handbag.
1 person likes this.
Reply 12 - Posted by:
Grounded 5/31/2019 5:49:47 PM (No. 87972)
Life in gator country must be interesting. And to think that 50 years ago (1967) the American Alligator was placed on the endangered species list. With few natural enemies in the wild, the alligator population recovered to the point that all protections were lifted twenty years later.
2 people like this.
Reply 13 - Posted by:
bad-hair 5/31/2019 6:01:53 PM (No. 87986)
# 10 You sound like a "deplorable southerner" If the last Pterodactyl on planet Earth flew over Beaumont, Texas some redneck would shoot it down and make boots. He'd keep one pair and sell the rest in New York City.
2 people like this.
Reply 14 - Posted by:
thewarden 5/31/2019 6:15:41 PM (No. 87998)
Oh HECK no! I freak out at the sight of a tiny lizard in my yard! You can keep them...shudder.
2 people like this.
Reply 15 - Posted by:
LC Chihuahua 5/31/2019 6:16:35 PM (No. 88000)
I'm guessing they had a floor length window. Wonder if the gator saw its reflection, thought it was a rival, and attacked.
0 people like this.
Reply 16 - Posted by:
DVC 6/1/2019 2:29:20 AM (No. 88151)
#14, that is a pretty obnoxious comment. Gators are FAR from endangered.
And #7, on the UF campus is a lake where in the 70s the students would feed the gators marshmallows.
The gators loved them, for some difficult to understand reason. I have seen gators RUNNING across land
to get in place when the marshmallows start hitting the water. In those days the gators were about 6 footers.
I imagine most of those same gators are still there in Lake Alice, and probably now more like 11 or 12 ft long.
Feeding gators is not smart. I used to imitate their call, stressfull on the vocal cords, but I could do a pretty
good imitation. Then one night, with friends visiting from Long Island, and while out on a long pier which was only
about 6" above a swamp/lake in front of a restaurant, I started grunting like a gator, just for fun. I stopped and
we quickly walked back off the long, low pier when an 8 footer silently popped up a couple of feet away to check
out the "other guy in my territory". Going to do some gator viewing in Colorado in a week or so.
0 people like this.
Reply 17 - Posted by:
franq 6/1/2019 9:29:31 AM (No. 88307)
Terrifying creatures with a walnut-sized brain. Their only use is for shoes and luggage. For the love of Pete and the public good: round them up and exterminate!
1 person likes this.
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Comments:
Broke in? Did they leave the door ajar? An 11-foot gator in the kitchen that broke in while everyone was asleep--my kind of story! Although we keep our distance, we Floridians like our alligators, and avoid swimming in any Florida lake, however tempting that may be to budding young Johnny Weissmullers. (Yes, many scenes from his Tarzan films were shot at Ocala's Silver Springs, where alligators are rampant.)