Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Haven't seen much posted here about Reggie, the gator a California ex-cop released and that the press has followed closely.

It was all over the media Tuesday morning that it had been captured. I saw it on the Today Show. One report was that they had lassoed it on the bank, which sounded suspect.

Here is a summatiom of the story so far. It just gets weirder every day.
Crocodile tears for urban alligator hoax

Sorry about that, I'm just back from 5 days in Germany on a NATO NEO Conference, and now I'm swallowed up by the admin behind this weekends' Canadian Amphibian and Reptile Conservation Network conference here in Ottawa (http://www.carcnet.ca/english/preliminary_schedule2005.html)
Cheers, Wes

DAILY BREEZE (Torrance, California) 15 September 05 Officials dismiss report of alligator capture as a hoax - Man claiming to be wrangler Jay Young says he caught the elusive gator.
(AP): Authorities today dismissed a claim that a wrangler had nabbed a 7-foot-long alligator named "Reggie" from Harbor City's Machado Lake, where he had been dumped several months ago and repeatedly avoided capture.
Earlier today, a man claiming to be wrangler Jay Young, who had been hired by the city, told several media outlets, including The Associated Press, that he had caught the alligator overnight. The Daily Breeze Web site posted the AP story for 30 minutes this morning before removing it.
The story was cast into doubt when the promised delivery of the alligator to the Los Angeles Zoo never happened.
"To the best of my knowledge and all the reports I have received this morning, it was a hoax," said Ron Berkowitz, the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks superintendent, who supervises the area that includes the lake. "I called the zoo to verify and the gator is not there. I called the rangers, the city council office and my staff at the lake. There was no capture."
Reached by phone at his Colorado gator farm later today, Young said he has not been in Los Angeles recently and that he hadn't called the media earlier in the day. He said the caller apparently was someone impersonating him.
Young was hired by the city last month and promised to capture the alligator within a few days. He left town on Aug. 18, unable to deliver on his promise.
Earlier, gator hunters from the local Southwestern Herpetologist Society tried to snare Reggie with raw chicken bait and a net. It didn't work.
After Young failed, a crew from Gatorland in Orlando, Fla., was hired, but again, came up empty.
A former Los Angeles police officer was arrested on Aug. 24 for allegedly dumping the alligator in the lake two months earlier when it got too big to keep as a pet. Another man, who police say gave Reggie to the former officer, was also arrested.
Officials dismiss report of alligator capture as a hoax