Alligators

Police arrested a man in Tampa who picked up a dead alligator and tried to butcher it on his front lawn. Benjamin Hodges, 35, said he found the dead gator floating in the Hillsborough River and took it home in a shopping cart because he wanted a new belt. He was charged with killing or possessing an alligator, a felony punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine. "I didn't think there was anything illegal about skinning a dead gator," he said.

Was that a smile on his toothy snout, or was Reggie the reclusive reptile just humming "See You Later, Alligator," as he floated Monday across a Harbor City pond? Stunned visitors at Lake Machado near the Harbor Freeway watched as Reggie resurfaced after an 18-month absence to spend 90 minutes leisurely gliding near a park observation deck. "He looked back at us with a bewildered look in his eye," said eyewitness Mike Molina, an aide to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

A 6 1/2 -foot alligator believed to be Reggie -- the elusive reptile that has been the subject of a closely chronicled "gator watch" since being illegally let loose in 2005 -- was captured and subdued by city workers Thursday afternoon on dry land beside Lake Machado in Harbor City. The creature, after being wrestled down and tied to a gurney, was whisked off to the Los Angeles Zoo for a brief physical and quarantine for 30 to 90 days. The Reggie adventure was capped by an almost O.J.

A man who lost his ball in a golf course pond could have lost a limb when an alligator latched on to his arm and pulled him into the water, authorities said in Venice. Bruce Burger, 50, was trying to retrieve his ball from a pond on the sixth hole at the Lake Venice Golf Club despite a sign that said "Beware of Alligator." After the gator grabbed him, Burger struck the reptile with his other arm until it let go. He was not seriously hurt.

Reggie the alligator -- last seen in public in May, when he was captured at a Harbor City lake -- made his debut at the Los Angeles Zoo on Thursday, with many of his fans there to cheer him on. Nearly 150 people, many decked out in alligator hats and Reggie T-shirts, crowded around his enclosure awaiting the big event, craning for a view over a line of news cameras. Many visitors had arrived from Harbor City on buses arranged by City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.

Reggie the alligator -- the John Dillinger of semi-aquatic reptiles -- was returned to custody Wednesday after having busted out of the slammer at the L.A. Zoo overnight. Reggie, who had won international fame while eluding capture in a Harbor City lake for almost two years, was last seen in stir about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. About 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, zoo personnel discovered he'd blown the joint.

A 59-year-old man's arm was bitten off by an alligator as he snorkeled in a lake, and doctors were unable to reattach it. The wounded man stumbled into a party of picnickers. Five nurses at the gathering put ice on his wound and kept him awake until paramedics arrived. His arm was retrieved from the alligator's belly after wildlife officers shot the animal.

Construction workers found the dismembered body of a woman Wednesday who authorities say may have been attacked and dragged into a canal by an alligator. Yovy Suarez Jimenez, 28, had gone out for a jog along a bicycle trail in Davie on Tuesday night, authorities said. Her body was found floating in a canal Wednesday, police Lt. Robert Voss said.

A medical examiner confirmed that an alligator killed a 28-year-old woman who disappeared while jogging near a canal in a Fort Lauderdale suburb. Construction workers found the woman's dismembered body floating in the canal. An autopsy showed she died of bleeding and shock from alligator bites, said Dr. Joshua Perper, the Broward County medical examiner.

They got him. He was a 9-foot-6 beast that took four days to trap and six people to haul in Saturday from the Sunrise canal where he killed a 28-year-old jogger. And inside his stomach, they found the grisly proof that they had the right alligator. "Hopefully, this will provide some peace to the young woman's family," said Dani Moschella, spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. "And hopefully this means we have removed a dangerous animal."