ST PETERSBURG TIMES (Florida) 09 August 03 Pair had dinner plans for alligator - Two men capture a gator from Taylor Lake, take it home and put it in the bathtub. That's illegal, and witnesses called police. (Tom Zucco)
Largo: They caught it. They lugged it home on their shoulders in plain view. So what's wrong with having an alligator for dinner?
That's what two Largo men told police Wednesday night after witnesses reported the men had a live 41/2-foot alligator in their bathtub.
Thomas A. Betts, 43, and Michael S. Schuppert, 33, were fishing at Taylor Park when they snagged the gator, officials said. The men used a shoelace to secure the gator's snout and carried it several blocks to Schuppert's house on Third Street NW.
"I walked in and found it in the tub half full of water," said Lt. Roger Young of the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission. "One of the men said they just wanted to eat its tail, but if you know anything at all about alligators, you know the tail is the only edible meat on them."
Young said Schuppert denied involvement in the incident, until Young pointed out that the black shoelace around the gator's mouth was an exact match to a shoelace Schuppert was missing on his right sneaker.
"It's pretty rare to find a captured one alive," Young said of gators, which are a protected species. "Usually you only find a carcass. We got there just in time."
Young charged them with illegal taking of an alligator, a second-degree misdemeanor punishable by up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine.
As for the gator, Young returned it to Taylor Lake. "I saw him swim off," he said. "It was a lucky day for him."
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/09/Northpinellas/Pair_had_dinner_plans.shtml