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Home-Invading Gator's Size Impresses Seasoned Trapper

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

Trapper Charles Carpenter snared this 8-foot gator inside a woman's kitchen.

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By NEIL JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 23, 2008

TAMPA - State-licensed trapper Charles Carpenter has pulled alligators from houses before, but never one as large as the 8-foot-8-inch specimen he hauled out of Sandie Frosti's kitchen Monday night.

Usually home invading alligators are in the 4-foot range, small enough to slip through a pet door, he said today.

The alligator that showed up in the kitchen of Frosti's duplex in the East Lake Woodlands development near Oldsmar, though, was far too large for a pet door. Instead, it bulled its way through a back porch screen and then slithered through an open sliding-glass door.

"It's the biggest I've ever heard of going inside a house," said Carpenter, a licensed trapper for Animal Capture of Florida.

The alligator's appearance in her kitchen vaulted Frosti to an appearance on the "Today" show this morning and also sealed its fate.

State guidelines call for it to be killed.

It's nearly impossible to relocate a captured alligator the size of this one because nearly any location has its own population of alligators.

"You already have an ecosystem with an established hierarchy, and somebody has to get kicked out," Carpenter said.

The alligator's size and the fact that it forced its way into the house makes Carpenter think the reptile was after Frosti's cat, Poe.

Poe managed to hide while the alligator wandered into the kitchen, emerging about an hour after Frosti called police and everyone waited outside for Carpenter to arrive.

Frosti dashed inside to snatch the cat to safety.

Carpenter, with help from four Pinellas County deputies, first tried to calm the alligator by tossing a towel over its head, but the reptile was having none of that.

He next tried an electronic calling device to lure the alligator from the kitchen, finally resorting to getting a lasso around its neck and hauling it outdoors.

"It was a challenge," Carpenter said.

Frosti thinks the alligator got in while she was gone. She left without closing the glass door separating the small screened porch from the house.

She returned about 9 p.m. and went straight to her bedroom, which is out of sight from the kitchen.

About 10:30 p.m., she heard a noise from the kitchen too loud to come from Poe. She discovered the alligator when she went to investigate the noise.

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