11-foot alligator pulled from drain in Florida after ‘bad smell’ complaints

'Abnormally large’ alligator was found decaying in a pipe in a Fort Myers neighbourhood

An ‘abnormally large’ alligator was pulled from a storm drain in Florida on Monday after officials in the state received complaints of bad smell.

The 11-foot long gator was found decaying in a pipe in a Fort Myers neighbourhood and was removed by stunned Lee County Department of Transportation (LeeDOT) officials.

“Lee DOT was alerted to the situation by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, which received a call related to an odour coming from a storm drain. DOT arrived on site and confirmed the odour was consistent with that of a decaying alligator,” Lee County Government said in a statement.



DOT is generally alerted to such situations by reports of odour coming from a catch basin or when drainage is backed up for no obvious reason.

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“DOT staff looped a line around the dead gator’s neck and brought in an excavator to pull the animal from the catch basin. DOT staff snapped one photo and the gator was deposited in a DOT dump truck and taken to a DOT site designated for disposal of dead animals and other DOT debris. The gator was buried,” the statement added.

Lee DOT typically handles the removal of one to two dead alligators in storm drain infrastructure annually.

Speaking about the incident, Lee County DOT Director Randy Cerchie, said, “This was an abnormally large gator, but removal is part of what we do. The catch basin was about four feet wide at the point where the gator was found; the gator was about three feet below the ground. Pipes leading into the catch basin area were about 14-inches by 24-inches.”

“We don’t usually see gators that big because our pipes are not that big,” he added.

An 11-foot alligator is to blame for a backed up drainage system in #FortMyers. Photo of the day! #FloridaProblems pic.twitter.com/aNyrDgofbW

— Kim Powell (@KimPowellTV) June 14, 2016

A day after the alligator was found in the drain, another alligator dragged a two-year-old boy into the water at Orlando's Disney World Resort. Police divers on Wednesday recovered the boy’s body who was grabbed by an alligator in front of his family during a vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.



The child was snatched by the alligator as he played at the water’s edge on Tuesday night and dragged into a lagoon despite his parents’ effort to save him.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said he and a Catholic priest had informed the family that the boy’s body had been recovered near where he vanished and was completely intact.

An autopsy would be carried out, Demings added, but the presumption was that the child was drowned by the alligator.

“It was a tough message to deliver,” Demings told a news conference. “Of course the family was distraught, but also I believe somewhat relieved that we were able to find their son … so that they can come to grips with what has happened.”

The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long.

This article originally appeared on Telegraph