Some Very Strange News

In the 12 years that I have made Los Angeles my home, I think this has to be one of the strangest, continuing local news stories that I have ever seen.

On Aug. 12 a 7-foot long alligator was first spotted in Machado Lake which is located in a public park, 20 miles south of downtown. Since then the authorities have kept the public away from the lake out of safety concerns. Hunters were brought in to scour the lake and catch the alligator. The spectacle has drawn television crews and hundreds of onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of the reptile. The Los Angeles Zoo has agreed to take the creature but no one has been able to capture it. Alligators have never inhabited this area. It is thought that someone may have had this one as a pet and then released it into the lake when it grew larger.

The city hired a professional “Gator Wrangler” at $800+ a day. Wearing a leather cowboy hat adorned with feathers and a necklace made of alligator teeth, he provided some interesting news footage but failed to accomplish the purpose. He got within eight feet of the creature and then it slipped away. Now he has slipped away to another job. As of now, the alligator is still enjoying its freedom. Every evening on the nightly newscasts, the saga of this hunted reptile and its hunters is continuing. It’s actually been a pleasant departure from most of what is normally shown on the news.