Posted on 03/30/2009 8:30:54 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
LAKE COUNTY, Fla. -- A Lake County man was attacked by an alligator inside his house Sunday night. The gator crawled through an open door and into the Florida room of the house on Lake Eustis Drive.
The man's wife and her friend used a broom handle to try and open the gator's mouth.
The house sits right along a canal and it wasn't much distance at all for the little alligator to climb out of the canal, under the gate and right through the back door.
"I saw him right here. Right here! That's when I turned around and went right back in," Elaine Gaff told Eyewitness News.
While it may be their Florida room, Elaine certainly didn't expect to find a alligator sitting in it Sunday night around 9:15.
"I actually panicked a little bit. And I said, 'There's a gator on the back porch!'" she said.
In the canal behind their home, the Gaffs see gators often enough, but Sunday night the gator must've smelled the food cooking and headed right inside.
"My girlfriend and I, we started brushing him away with a broom and we got him so far," Elaine said.
Once Elaine got the alligator to a back door, Jim Gaff rushed over to try and help out with his bare hands.
"So I just reached down and grabbed it by the tail and was reaching up to grab it by the head and I wasn't fast enough," Jim said.
The young, 3-foot gator swung his head around and took a nice, grown-up-sized bite into Jim's left arm.
"My girlfriend and I, we actually put the broom handle in the gator's mouth to pry it open," Elaine said.
"It didn't go deep. There's not a chunk missing. It just broke through the skin, bleeding and that was it," Jim said.
Jim might be playing it cool Monday, but they spent much of Sunday night in the emergency room cleaning the wound and loading up on antibiotics. Elaine, on the other hand, has learned her lesson.
"All the time. All the time. There's no way I'm keeping these doors open," Elaine said.
Florida Fish and Wildlife said that's probably a good rule, especially this time of year when gators are out.
The agency issued the Gaffs a warning. You're always supposed to call them in to remove a gator in a situation like this.
I smell a lawsuit. Some ambulance chasing lawyer will sue on behalf of the gator. The young gator was forced to have broomstick inside his mouth. I think a wildlife fine should also be in order. Gators have rights too!
Laave a door open in Florida near water and you get mosquitoes which are a royal pain to have in your bedroom at night.
The Wildlife officers may have suspected the people had been enticing the gators into their home for cheap entertainment.
Lake Eustis? Yikes, my auntie lives in Eustis. When I went to visit, it was nothing to look out and watch gators swimming up the canal. Eerie!
That gator is ringing the freaking door bell!
Man... better get a sign so they know they aren’t welcome....put it right under the ‘no hand bills’ sign.
Have a friend here in TX that has contended with gators and he swears the broom is the thing to use.
And not a call made either.
Not a smart thing to do, grab at a cornered gator with bear hands. Why didn't he just get a knife of an axe and finish the thing off?
Oh yes, I forgot. People don't keep axes near their doors anymore.(We all do round these parts. Even a bear can be stopped with one, while someone else gets the gun.)
A)(as pointed out above) It wasn't in the water, and
B)more importantly, this was a 3 foot gator, just a little baby really...not quite limb-ripping size...probably no stronger than a dog...
There’s some biggies on those lakes. Used to watch the ultra-lites fly and land on the water out there.
Only in the water. Besides three foot gators are not very dangerous. Keep in mind the tail was probably 20-22 inches of the 36.
Even an alligator knows what a door is, unlike the Pres_ent who tried to use a window instead of a door. LOL
So many people in America have turned into such unrealistic incompetents.
So many people unprepared to defend themselves and deal with pragmatic and common sense reality.
It’s not just Florida that has alligators. Texas has them and the entire Gulf Coast does too. We have them on our property.
bttt
“Who is it?
“mgzgfbzkdfh”
“Who is it?”
“Plumber!”
“I didn’t ask for a plumber. Who is it?”
“Telegram!”
“Oh, telegram. Just a moment.”
I'm surprised they weren't hauled off to jail. FWIW, the alligator is no longer endangered or threatened, but it's still protected by law.
These people were on F&F this morning. They were great and funny.
The wife held up the ticket her hubby got for “molesting an alligator” ROTFL
Now that is downright funny.
At least they can laugh about it.
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