NEWS-PRESS (Fort Myers, Florida) 01 May 06 Punta Gorda woman, 76, fights off gator with hose (Grant Boxleitner)
Constance Gittles thought it was just a snake.
The south Punta Gorda woman was watering plants in her backyard Tuesday when she felt something bite her leg just above the ankle.
Gittles, 75, quickly pulled her foot away. Instead of a snake, a nearly 6-foot-long alligator was sitting there.
“When I looked down I saw this fellow looking at me,” Gittles said.
But Gittles didn’t panic. She defended herself with the hose.
“I just whacked him right in the snout with the nozzle,” she said. “After that, he took off.”
State wildlife officials responded to Gittles' house at Blue Heron Pines mobile home park, 29500 Jones Loop Road, which is visible from Interstate 75.
John French, a licensed alligator trapper through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, took an alligator out of a nearby pond that is the one that likely bit Gittles, said FWC spokeswoman JoAnne Adams.
“Based on the bite marks and the teeth, we think it was the same one,” Adams said.
French used a new technique to lure the alligator to him, blaring alligator hatchling and mating calls from a boom box along the shore, wildlife officials said.
On a separate occasion, an alligator that heard these noises came out of a lake and bit the trapper’s boom box, Adams said.
The alligator trapped Tuesday will be killed, with its meat and hide sold.
Meanwhile, Gittles suffered three puncture wounds and some lesser scrapes and abrasions from the attack. She received antibiotics from her physician and a tetanus shot from the health department.
“That’s a laugh,” Gittles said. “They say ‘what happened’ and you say you were bitten by an alligator.”
Gittles has lived at Blue Heron Pines for 17 years. She said she sees alligators all the time, but mostly just their eyes on top the pond near her backyard.
“We’ve seen alligators, but I’ve never seen one come that close to me,” Gittles said. “I was walking around that little planter and never even saw him.”
Gittles said the bite still hurts today, especially the one that went to the bone about 2 inches above her ankle.
Punta Gorda woman, 76, fights off gator with hose