Trappers snag a 12-foot-long alligator on a Florida beach

Florida’s got over 660 miles of beaches. Florida’s got alligators in 67 counties. So, you wouldn’t think a beached alligator would be that big a deal.

But a 12-foot-long alligator’s a big deal anywhere. Especially on a beach near where folks live and walk dogs the size of the gator’s chompers.

That’s where Indian River County Sheriff’s Office, with help from local alligator trappers, snagged an alligator the size of a beach patrol vehicle Sunday. Near the beach, you’d find Vero Beach’s The Moorings, a gated golf community, as reported by Treasure Coast Newspapers. A woman called 911 after seeing the gator while walking her dogs.

“There’s a ton of alligators in the river that people don’t know about,” nuisance alligator trapper Justin Morrison told TCPalm.com. “But alligators that size, they’re not usually in neighborhoods or off the beach.”

Morrison said this is the first beached gator he’s picked up in his year of trapping on a beach, and the gator seemed tired from hauling his bulk past the waves.

The state record alligator length, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, is the 14-feet, 3-1/2 inches a male gator found in Brevard County’s Lake Washington.

This story was originally published October 25, 2017 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Trappers snag a 12-foot-long alligator on a Florida beach."