Posted on 02/22/2017 10:46:37 AM PST by nickcarraway
A 3-to-4-foot gator approached a couple at UF, ate their food and took a camera
Two Valentine’s Day picnics were crashed Tuesday by an uninvited guest: an alligator with an appetite.
Tatiana Radulovic and her boyfriend, Chris Day, were eating a picnic dinner by the Baughman Center at Lake Alice on Tuesday when a 3-to-4-foot alligator began to approach at about 6:40 p.m.
The pair, sitting near another couple, thought the alligator wouldn’t be an issue — until it went for their food. They said they had seen the alligator in the water while they were eating, but Radulovic, 19, told Day not to worry.
“Those things can run faster than people when they want to,” Day said. “You can’t mess around with them.”
Day said he listened to Radulovic, who was convinced the alligator wouldn’t disturb them unless they disturbed it.
“She’s been around gators more than I have, and I don’t know, she kind of assured me that nothing would happen,” the 19-year-old UF biomedical engineering freshman said. “Which obviously is not how it happened.”
The alligator began to rifle through their bag and ate their chicken salad wraps. It also grabbed Radulovic’s camera, worth about $50, and dragged it into the lake.
Both couples ran toward the sidewalk and away from the water, watching for about 20 minutes while the alligator sat by their picnic blanket. Radulovic said they called University Police, but left before an officer arrived.
“That could have been so much worse,” said Radulovic, a UF statistics and marketing freshman. “At first I was really upset about the camera until I realized that could have gone in a totally worse direction.”
In November 2015, a UF student captured a video of an alligator eating a sandwich from another’s picnic lunch near Lake Alice, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
Kent Vliet, a UF biology lab coordinator who has studied alligators and crocodiles for more than 30 years, said alligators rarely provoke people but might if they’ve been fed before and learned that behavior.
Vliet said he has heard reports of a small alligator by the Baughman Center approaching people with food.
“It may just be a single individual,” Vliet said. “Sooner or later, he’s probably going to get killed, if he keeps this up.”
@romyellenbogen
“She’s been around gators more than I have, and I don’t know, she kind of assured me that nothing would happen,” the 19-year-old UF biomedical engineering freshman said. “Which obviously is not how it happened.”...
There’s so many things wrong with this sentence that I dont know where to begin.
Maybe the alligator wanted to take a picture with his girlfriend for Valentine's Day?
“I told you not to wear that University of Georgia hat!” :)
Any real live editor would have left the last quotation off.
That “Which obviously is not how it happened.” was redundant.
Plus, what sort of reporter starts a new sentence with the word “Which”? May as well start it with “And”.
I suppose robot-editor software is to blame.
It’s much cheaper than hiring a person with experience.
When I did graphics, I would sometimes have to type a page or two from the banker’s script.
I would NEVER EVER trust myself or a robot to proof it.
We had GREAT editors.
“Tatiana Radulovic and her boyfriend, Chris Day, were eating a picnic dinner by the Baughman Center at Lake Alice on Tuesday when a 3-to-4-foot alligator began to approach at about 6:40 p.m.”
Exactly which direction is 6:40 pm?
rofl!!
Sounds extremely hot.
They let a little gator like that back ‘em down? A good whack on the snout would have run it off.
He ate their lunch and then he had to document it with the camera.
City slicker here. You got the wrong guy :)
Yes, I freely admit I would have sounded like a 6 year old girl as I ran away, leaving my wife in the dust...
A little past South, assuming 12 is N? I don't know, journalist don't need to know how to report, just how to create fake news and be a lib activist.
Looks like the University of Florida may have
to go into a gator relocation mode.
You’ve just got to be a little bit smarter than the critter your dealing with. In this case a good sturdy stick would be handy.
Oh yeah, Mrs. Fella would most likely smacked it before I had a chance to. She’s that kind of gal.
smokin...
Are you kidding?
You ever need advice on how to get to uptown Manhattan the fastest way I’m your guy.
But If I see a “critter” like that, “Give me three steps mister!”
Might be an acceptable hot/crazy balance.
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