1The two-year-old boy who was snatched by an alligator at a Disney resort
A 2-year-old Nebraska toddler was snatched from a Walt Disney World beach by an alligator and dragged underwater in June 2016.
Little Lane Graves was no more than 1 or 2 feet into the water of the Seven Seas Lagoon when he was taken, authorities said. His father desperately tried to fight off the gator, suffering lacerations on his hands, but he could not save his son.
Disney has "No Swimming" signs near the lagoon, but those signs make no mention of alligators. The company plans to review its alligator warning signage thoroughly in the wake of this tragedy.
Alligator attacks are rare in Florida—only 23 people have died statewide since 1973, according to wildlife and conservation commission records.
2The man who taunted an alligator then was killed by it
A Texas man ignored the risks of the alligators and jumped a river, despite warning signs. Needless to say, he is dead after being attacked.
Tommie Woodward, 28, is the man who ignored the “No Swimming Alligators” sign and seemed to mock the deadly creatures before going in the water. Burkart's Marina employee Michelle Wright said she told Woodward, “Please do not go swimming, there's a bigger alligator out here. Just please stay out of the water."
“He removed his shirt, removed his billfold … someone shouted a warning, and he said ‘f--k the alligators.' He jumped into the water and almost immediately yelled for help,” Rodney Price, Orange County Justice of the Peace, said.
Woodward's body was found several hours later by a game warden. A friend of the victim, known only as Bear, has since made the alligator pay with its life for his buddy's mistake. He shot and killed the 11-foot animal saying, “He had to go. That's what happens when you kill someone.”
Bear now faces a potential $500 fine, because that's what happens when you kill an alligator in Texas.
3The man who tossed a live alligator through a drive-thru window
After placing an order at a Jupiter, Florida Wendy's in April 2016, Joshua James, 24, tossed a live alligator through the drive-thru window before speeding away.
James was later arrested and charged with assault with a deadly weapon without intent to kill, illegal possession of an alligator, and petty theft. He was legally banned from all Wendy's restaurants and is prohibited from contact with “any animals except (the) current family dog.” He was also ordered to undergo a mental health evaluation and to avoid possessing any weapons.
When asked why he decided to throw an alligator through the drive-thru window, he said, "We're just like outdoors kinda people and just anything we find we kinda just like catch—you know, snakes, lizards, anything. And we just saw an alligator and caught it and were handling it and like I said, ideas start popping, and one thing leads to another."
He has since been sentenced to a year of probation after throwing himself at the mercy of the court. The gator was captured and returned to the wild.
4The Florida woman who is fighting to keep her pet alligator
Mary Thorn is fighting to keep her pet alligator after Florida Fish and Wildlife said she may need to find him a new home.
15-year-old Rambo has been with Mary for 11 years. He's recently grown to 6 feet, which means he's now required by law to have 2.5 acres of land available to him. Even if that were possible, Mary claims it wouldn't make a difference—Rambo is sensitive to sunlight. He's "treated like a baby" and lives inside her home, and she's taught him not to bite, scratch, head butt or swat, which allows him to interact with the public safely.
Mary's case is still open and under investigation, meaning there's no concrete timeline for a resolution. She may be able to keep him, as she got him before the new law came into action. She also has an offer from a reptile encounter attraction in Tampa, but Mary says, “I know when he goes there he's going to be really afraid and he's probably going to pass away from stress."
5The burglar who was killed by an alligator while hiding from the cops
In December 2015, a suspected burglar died after being attacked by a gator while hiding from police near Barefoot Bay, Florida.
22-year-old Matthew Riggins' body was pulled from the water by officials who were also almost attacked by an aggressive 11-foot alligator as they attempted to retrieve it.
Riggins told his girlfriend he and a friend would be in the Barefoot Bay area to steal from homes. When the duo were confronted by police during the robberies, they fled and hid near the bay.
The gator was captured and euthanized. Investigators found Riggins' hand and foot inside the reptile's stomach. His accomplice survived unscathed.
6The alligator "mascot" that roams a Florida golf course
Alligators are a pretty common sight in Florida, but this one is so big it looks like a dinosaur.
Golfer Charles Helms took video of the behemoth at the Buffalo Creek Golf Club in Palmetto, Florida. Initially, people were skeptical, but we assure you, the footage—like the alligator—is real.
Buffalo Creek employee Wendy Schofield said that the enormous reptile frequents the golf course and has become the club's unofficial mascot. "He has been here for a very, very long time; he's not new at all. There have been guesses that he's 15 to 16 feet long."
7The alligator that used a crosswalk to traverse a busy intersection
Why did the alligator cross the road? We don't know, but when he did, he obeyed the law and used this Palm Coast, Florida crosswalk.
The gator, which measured more than 5 feet long, darted out into the street, and deputies stopped traffic to allow it to use the crosswalk. "He just walked in the crosswalk like it was normal,'' FCSO Cpl. Kenny Goncalves said.
A trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was called to the scene, but the alligator returned to its natural habitat before he could get there.
8The alligator wandering a Florida neighborhood with a man's body in its mouth
An alligator was seen wandering the streets of a Lakeland, Florida neighborhood with a dead man in its mouth, prompting residents to call 911.
The alligator—estimated at between 8 to 10 feet long—was clutching the body in its jaws. "I've got a dead body over here in the lake," the caller said. "Uh, it looks like an alligator is trying to pull it down under."
Richard Zachary Taylor, 72, has been identified as the deceased. Taylor was homeless, and officials are unsure if the alligator killed him or if he was already dead. The alligator was later captured and killed.
9The men who captured a 765-pound alligator with their bare hands
For several months, Keith Kelley and Kelly Sziy were scouting an unusually large gator, who they nicknamed "Lumpy." In October 2014, they finally got their reptile—all 13 feet, 4 inches and 765 pounds of him—with their bare hands!
The duo caught Lumpy in only about 5 feet of St. Johns River water, near Jacksonville, with a rope, a few hooks, and their strength. "(I) put some leather gloves on and I told Kelly: We're going to have to get him by hand, and that's all it is to it," Keith said.
Lumpy broke the scale at the Alligator Farm, where specialists said say they don't see those kinds of catches very often. The gator was killed and used for processed meat, and his head is mounted on Kelley's wall. He says he's already looking ahead to the next big catch.
10The dead alligator that was removed from a neighborhood sewer
Residents of a Ft. Myers, Florida neighborhood called officials when the smell coming from the sewer system was just too much to bear. What officials found there was more than they expected—a dead 11-foot long alligator.
When workers arrived, they immediately confirmed the horrible odor was indeed a gator stuck in the catch basin. It was removed with an excavator and disposed of.