11-foot gator pulled from Whiskey Creek drainage system

FORT MYERS, Fla. – After resident complaints about a foul smell coming from a drainage system, the public works department discovered a dead 11-foot gator.

Michelle McDaniel said she called local deputies when the smell near her home became noticeable. There was no visible issue but she explained the odor was like “like rotting food basically, something rotting like a dead animal.”

The drain was beginning to back up and McDaniel said she suspected an animal was caught in the system.

“I was expecting to see a rat or a squirrel, maybe a possum,” she said.

But instead, beneath the neighborhood streets was a gigantic alligator. Crews took it out of the drain and snapped a photo. The photo is getting a lot of traffic online.

While many people are in awe of the gator, McDaniel said she is concerned. She walks her dog every day and worries that it could turn into a gator’s prey.

County officials said they do find gators in storm drains, but that happens once to twice a year. The 11-foot gator may have crawled through a pipe as small as 14 inches before it died at the spot where it was found, officials said. It likely came from a nearby retention pond, they said.