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WEEKLY NEWS 4: Alligator Escapes Capture

Many residents of Los Angeles, California, on August 18, 2005, gathered together alongside Lake Machado to wait for a legendary alligator to rise up from the murky waters.

This alligator is famous for outwitting and evading captors who try to take him from the neighborhood. After stunning local authorities when it first surfaced, the seven-foot reptile was chased around much of Lake Machado by a professional “gator wrangler” from Colorado--but was never caught. The wrangler and his crew returned to their home state, promising to return with larger nets.

The escapee was once thought to be a reptile called a Caiman, but the wrangler confirmed it to be an alligator.

Local citizen Paul Smith told Reuters: “I don’t think you could say they didn’t catch the gator for lack of effort. They’ll get him eventually. They’ll figure something out.”

Authorities believe the alligator once belonged to someone as an exotic pet but was later abandoned whenever it became too large. Authorities also said they thought the animal had been living in the lake for at least two months, dining on the scraps left behind by fishermen and the bread crumbs thrown out for birds.

--Written by Leah Williams

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