Second renegade alligator surfaces in Los Angeles

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Los Angeles officials, still unable
to catch an alligator that stunned them by surfacing in a city
lake last month, now face a doubly vexing situation — a second
renegade gator.

The second reptile was seen basking in a drainage canal
this week by residents in the gritty neighborhood of Harbor
City, not far from where wranglers have spent weeks chasing the
first alligator, “Reggie,” around murky Lake Machado.

City parks officials were so baffled by the sighting that
they first concluded it was Reggie, but residents of a nearby
trailer park say the second reptile is younger and smaller.

“I thought it was cool. I want him to stay. I want him to
be my friend,” said 19-year-old Haley Reagan, whose father Greg
was first to spot the toothy creature. “My friend wanted me to
go out the other day and I said ‘No, I’m out here with the
alligator.’ It’s kind of odd.”

Animal control officers and professional alligator
wranglers spent much of Wednesday trying unsuccessfully to
catch the slippery, 3-foot (1 meter) reptile with a noose, only
to have him duck repeatedly under the water and out of sight.

“It was almost like he was taunting the guy trying to catch
him,” Reagan said. “I think he thought they were playing
because he would put the net on his nose and then go under.

“He’s really calm,” she said. “Everyone’s making a big
scare out of it but he’s really friendly, he’s just a baby.
They approach him like he’s harmful but he’s not at all.”

In August, police arrested two men for releasing Reggie
into Lake Machado, saying he was purchased as a pet and then
abandoned when he grew too large, possibly as long as 10 feet .
Alligators are native to the Southeastern United States and are
not found in the wild in California.

Meanwhile Reggie has attained folk-hero status as he
outwits police, firefighters, park rangers, animal control
officers, state fish and game workers, volunteer herpetologists
and two teams of gator wranglers to remain on the lam.

Crowds routinely gather around the lake to wait for Reggie
to surface out of the brackish waters. Some have taken to
selling T-shirts bearing the alligator’s image and slogan:
“Harbor City You Will Never Catch Me.”