7-Foot Alligator Found Lounging On The Front Porch Of Georgia Daycare While Kids Were Inside
Parents could feel their blood run cold while dropping off their children at a Georgia daycare as they encountered a 7-foot alligator curled up underneath a chair on the front porch.
The incident took place in the Angel’s Child Care & Enrichment Center at 806 Bowden Street on Wednesday. The Savannah Police Department authorities responded to the scene, where they enlisted the help of a local trapper, Jack Douglas, who goes by "Trapper Jack," to wrangle the gator, WBTV reported.
All the children were inside when the alligator sighting took place and no one was injured, police told WTOC. The animal was relocated after its capture.
Katrina Bostick, an employee at the daycare, told WBTV that the children were very excited to see the alligator. "For the babies, it was very exciting," she said, adding: "It was like, 'OK, we have our own personal zoo.'"
Douglas said the daycare sits in the middle of some of the biggest wetlands where gators largely inhabit. While there have been instances where gators wandered into residential areas, the sightings are becoming increasingly common as the waterbodies are drying up in quick succession.
"A lot of our swamps are drying up," he told McClatchy News. "Even though we’re getting a little rain, it’s not rising the water in the swamps, so they’re running out of water and are on the move a lot trying to find deeper water," Douglas added.
In March last year, a Florida woman was shocked to find a 7-foot alligator lurking inside her garage. Torrie Heathcoat opened her garage door only to find the alligator hissing at her. She shared the footage on Facebook, stating that it gave her a "mild heart attack" to encounter the predator there.
Heathcoat said her husband left the garage door open as he headed for a gas station, and upon returning, he found the animal inside. The woman said when her husband informed her about the gator, she initially thought he was playing a prank on her.