It’s a sight you don’t see every day, at least not around here. An alligator spotted and captured in Northeast Georgia.
According to Sgt. Carissa McFadden with the Banks County Sheriff’s Office, dispatch received a call around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday from Banks County EMS in reference to an alligator in the area of Industrial Park Drive and Industrial Park Boulevard.
The area where the gator was captured is less than half a mile from the Banks Crossing shopping center in Commerce.
“Deputies were unable to respond immediately due to a high call volume at the time,” she explains. “Banks County Code Enforcement Officer, Paul Ruark, responded and successfully captured the reptile.”
Why did the alligator cross the road? (Not sure, but it’s a good thing it did!)
Ruark says the six- to seven-foot gator was first spotted by some firemen who saw it crossing the road. “The water department did some work that may have run him out of the woods,” Ruark says. “If we hadn’t seen him crossing the road he might still be down there.”
He says the gator was living in a swampy area near some wet weather ponds and, based on its size, figures it had been down there for a couple of years. “It struck us as odd that it was one animal,” he says. “We’re thinking that the alligator was probably brought up here and let out.”
Spotting the gator was one thing. Capturing him, well, that’s the rest of the story.
Wrangling a reptile
Rurark says it took several men from Banks County Code Enforcement, the county fire department and EMS to wrangle the reptile. Asked how they knew how to capture it – given gators aren’t native to the area – Ruark explains with a lighthearted laugh, “You do the best you can with what you’ve got.” And what he had was a catch pole normally used for dogs and cats and duck tape.
Yes. Duck tape.
After several failed attempts to loop the catch pole around the alligator’s snout (“It kept sliding off”) Ruark finally landed the loop around the creature’s neck. Then, as he held the pole, several others pinned down the gator and another man crawled up its back and taped its snout shut with duck tape.
It wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Ruark says the gator put up a fight. “He was not happy with all the attention he was getting but we couldn’t have him running loose down there.”
The gator was handed over to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and is now in the process of being relocated.
Reflecting on his “adventure” Ruark seems relieved and happy the reptile is getting a new home. “There’s a place for him,” he says, “but that’s just not the place.”
