ST PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 06 October 06 It was an ugly day in this neighborhood - Lake Roberta's gator was a good neighbor until it was maliciously killed. (Alexandra Zayas)
The Lake Roberta alligator had a deal with its human neighbors: They didn't feed it, and it didn't eat them.
Instead, the alligator watched them jog around the lake and feed the birds. Neighbors, in turn, watched it sun itself on the banks and eat the birds. Human and beast coexisted peacefully for five years.
Nobody knows how the Lake Roberta alligator died. Its body was found Sept. 27, its front feet missing. Some neighbors suspect poisoning came first, then mutilation.
Retiree Joe Crescenzi prefers to remember the reptile alive. The last time he saw it was three days before it died.
Crescenzi noticed feathers flapping furiously over the lake through his dining room window. It was a bird desperately trying to escape. He dropped his sandwich and picked up his binoculars.
"Birds started gathering, coming closer," he said. "And for 10, 15 seconds, he was just flapping his wings, that bird.
"Then all of the sudden, down he went."
The other birds hovered above that spot for a while.
"They all knew something had happened," Crescenzi said. "They all knew they lost one of theirs, I guess."
A familiar bump broke through the murky water. The alligator swam away.
A few days later, city surveyors working on a stormwater project saw the alligator's still body on the edge of the water. They poked it with a stick.
News of the alligator's death traveled quickly through the tight- knit neighborhood. A small group gathered by the alligator and shared memories. It outsmarted trappers three different times. It feasted on marine toads that are poisonous to pets. It retreated into the water if humans got too close.
"He never hurt anybody, that's for sure," neighbor George Wilson said.
Wilson touched the alligator for the first time, running his hand over the dark brown plates on the alligator's back.
"They're not sharp, but they're very angular. Certain parts of his body, like his back legs, were pretty soft," Wilson said. "And his tummy was real smooth, like a snake."
Crescenzi ran a tape ruler from the alligator's nose to its tail. It measured 6 foot 8.
Helen Harmon stood in awe. Few had ever seen its entire body.
"He's just such a beautiful creature," she said.
Cars slowed at the sight of the dead animal. Shock filled the faces of drivers, neighbors who routinely slowed to catch glimpses of the gator.
They all knew something happened. They all knew they lost one of theirs.
It was an ugly day in this neighborhood