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Pasco Deputies Nab Gator Strolling Through Residential Area

From Pasco Sheriff's Office video

Pasco deputies found this 7-foot-plus alligator walking down a street early Monday morning in Port Richey's Regency Park subdivision.

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By LISA A. DAVIS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 16, 2008

Updated: 06/16/2008 02:58 pm

PORT RICHEY - With about 30 alligator captures under his belt, Pasco County Deputy Fredric Vetter wasn't fazed when he was called out Monday morning to deal with an alligator strolling down a street in the Regency Park subdivision.

Even the alligator's size — 7 feet 8 inches and weighing 250 to 300 pounds — didn't make him blink.

"I hate to say, it's just another gator call," he said. "…Once you do it a couple of times, it's like anything else."

This reptile, though, wasn't the 2- to 3-footer he was used to dealing with.

The upside?

The big ones aren't as fast as the little guys, so he wasn't worried.

"They tire out pretty quick. You let them roll around and they get tired," he said.

He had help, too: Deputies Matthew Kadel and Monte Schuler. They used a poker stick to lasso the alligator and held it while Vetter jumped on its back and worked his way up to the head, which he pulled back to tape the alligator's mouth. Then he secured the alligator's legs.

The alligator was a nuisance no more.

It didn't hurt anyone, but it did do some damage.

The alligator hissed, thrashed and turned so much that it snapped the poker stick, Vetter said.

"I was upset he broke my poker," he said.

While the deputies secured the alligator, an audience developed on Wax Leaf Court.

The deputies contacted trapper Kylan Fitzpatrick, but he wasn't nearby, and they were worried about keeping the alligator in the cul-de-sac too long with so many people nearby.

So the deputies moved the alligator to the back seat of Vetter's patrol car and took him to a Hess station at Little Road and State Road 54, where they met the trapper.

The alligator will be destroyed because they are considered a nuisance when they are greater than 5 feet and invade human territory, Vetter said. It likely will be sold for its meat and hide.

Vetter said he doesn't have any formal training in alligator capturing.

"I grew up in Florida and grew up around them," he said. "You just kind of learn as you go."

Dealing with people, he said, can be more challenging.

"I've had a lot worse people in my back seat than the alligator," Vetter said.

Reporter Lisa A. Davis can be reached at (727) 815-1083 or ldavis@tampatrib.com.

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