DAILY NEWS (Jacksonville, N Carolina) 02 June 03 Gator crashes the party (Kinea White)
Photo at URL: Uncooperative: N.C. Wildlife officer Walter Cotton tries to get a rope around the neck of an 8-foot alligator Sunday afternoon. (John Althouse)
It wasn't the guest they were expecting to see when Jody Cavanaugh and his family arrived home from church Sunday afternoon.
Pulling into their Richlands home, the Cavanaughs noticed a dark, unusual object lying in the grass beside their home.
"It looked like a tire," said Cheryl Cavanaugh.
But much to their surprise, it wasn't a tire, but an 8-foot alligator.
"We didn't go near it," she said. "Jody just got his camera and took pictures from the sidewalk."
And the guest remained there awhile. It took N.C. Wildlife close to three hours before getting out to the Richlands home. But once there, they needed less than 30 minutes to get control of the animal and take it to an undisclosed location.
The wildlife officers wrapped a noose around its head and legs, then, after struggling for a few minutes to get the alligator to calm down, they got jumped on its back.
"We did the typical Crocodile Dundee thing," said wildlife enforcement officer Walter Cotton.
With all the rain and flooding, Cotton said, alligators are going to be roaming around.
"It's just the time of the year for this."
Charles Smith, one of the enforcement officers, said it's not typical to see alligators in the Richlands area, but there are several in the New River and in the Wilmington area.
Smith said in cases like these, it's important to keep the animal and public safe. And many times, he added, if families remain calm, the alligator sometimes crawls away.
But the Cavanaughs didn't see anything wrong with having a little alligator fun before wildlife officers arrived.
A host of friends and relatives arrived just after 5 p.m., to get their picture taken standing about 35 feet away from the alligator. With each passing hour, some of the Cavanaugh men got braver and started inching closer to the reptile. Eventually, they were close enough to toss a few golf balls at it.
With all the spectating, the Cavenaughs decided to order pizza and eat while they waited.
Gene Cavanaugh, Jody's father, said the alligator could have come from Squires Run, a swamp behind their property. He said that three years ago, they found an alligator on another piece of their property in the Richlands area.
"I'll admit I was scared," Cheryl said. "This is where my children play. This will just add to my worries."
She said she will warn her 2- and 3-year-old boys to put on their sun block, their bug spray and now watch out for alligators.
Gator crashes the party