ST PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 31 August 06 Wrestling match on basketball court, gator loses (Jonathan Abel)
Photo at URL: Trapper Roger Trusty moves the 8-foot alligator into the back of his truck after trapping it. (Keri Wiginton)
Brooksville: Kristen Williams was taking roll for her gym class when she noticed a visitor nearby — an 8-foot, 2-inch alligator.
The reptile was sunning itself on the basketball courts just outside the gym at Parrott Middle School. It wasn’t moving at first, but then Williams looked outside and saw it start to slither.
She called for help.
“This is not a little gator,” she said. “This is a big gator.”
The school went into lockdown.
Custodians, teachers and the principal all came out to the basketball courts, which back up to a small pond at the edge of acres of woods.
The courts are painted green so the animal blended in at first.
At 9:45 a.m., deputy Kenneth Keeney, the school resource officer, called the Sheriff’s Office to report it. Trapper Roger A. Trusty drove out to the scene.
He and Keeney wrestled with it as the gator rolled. Eventually they bound the gator’s teeth with tape, and tied up his limbs.
Witnesses said the alligator was making a croaking sound.
“I’ve been doing it 12 years,” Trusty said, with the gator in the back of the truck,” I like the one-on-one.”
An hour after the gator was first spotted, the school was back operating as normal.
The marching band came out for some last-minute practice before its first football game. Principal Marvin Gordon said he wasn’t scared.“My only fear is snakes, not gators,” he said.
Custodian Anthony Hill said he was holding shut the gate to the basketball court in case the gator tried to make a break in his direction.
“If he comes,” Hill said, “we’ll have lunch together.”
By that time, the gator was safely removed — and its way to be destroyed.
Wrestling match on basketball court, gator loses