Three-legged alligator removed from fishing hole

See ya later, alligator! That’s what one Fort Myers neighborhood said after the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission removed a scaly scare Thursday afternoon.

Found in a creek across from Fort Myers High School, the gator had only three legs and one eye. Even so, the beast put up a good fight.

“His jaws are big. His head was, you know, the top of his head is that wide, and the thing is behind his neck. So now they could pull him and he started doing the barrel roll,” said witness Dave Douglas.

Neighbor Dave Douglas told WINK News that FWC quickly wrangled the gator up before it could wrangle someone else.

“A kid walking through here and or a dog that walks around everybody, everybody walks their dogs around here, that gator could come out and snatch,” said Douglas.

Although the signs in the area say no fishing and no swimming, neighbors told WINK that doesn’t stop the kids from coming to play in the water.

“There’s a lot of little children in this neighborhood, especially a lot of younger boys that come down here fishing all the time,” said neighbor Ann Shefferly.

Shefferly lives just down the road with her young kids.

She said seeing the massive gator near where they play was a shock.

“Very scary. I mean, we live right across the street, and I never let them come down here by themselves, for good reason. I mean, we live in Florida, so the rule of thumb is, if the water is wet, there’s a gator in it,” said Shefferly.