MIAMI HERALD (Florida) 06 October 05 One wild carport: Croc lazes where gator tread - A rarely seen 9-foot-long American crocodile cornered itself in the same North Miami Beach carport visited by an even larger alligator 15 years before. (Robert L. Steinback)
Adrienne Zisk opened the door between her utility room and carport in North Miami Beach on Wednesday morning and came face to snout with 200 pounds of reptilian déj vu.
'She came in and said to me, `There's an alligator in our carport,' and I laughed and said, 'That was 15 years ago,' '' said her husband, Morton. 'She said, `No, now.' I said, 'You're kidding.' She wasn't kidding.''
This time, it was a 9-foot male endangered American crocodile, rather than an 11-foot, three-legged alligator, in the 19400 block of Northeast 22nd Road.
''It was just lying there, and it was just staring up at her when she opened the door,'' said Morton Zisk, a retired dentist. ``Needless to say, it scared the hell out of her.''
If that wasn't strange enough, the same North Miami Beach officer who responded to the call a decade and a half ago, Melanie Sanchez, was the first responder on the scene Wednesday.
''It's the same exact house, the same carport and the same owner,'' Sanchez said. ``The other one was 11 ½ feet and missing one leg, and it was meaner than a junkyard dog.''
And the same professional trapper -- Todd Hardwick of Pesky Critters -- came to capture the latest wayward beast.
''It was unusual because it was a crocodile,'' Hardwick said. ``We have alligators turn up regularly in carports and at people's doors, but to see a 9-foot, 200-pound crocodile turn up, for me it was a most unique situation.''
As he drove to the house, Hardwick told Sanchez by telephone to keep the crocodile in the carport.
'He said, `Don't let it get in the water,' and I'm thinking, 'How am I supposed to do that? I'm 125 pounds.' He said, 'Just go up to it and yell and scream and wave your arms.' ''
Wednesday's event followed three years of croc sightings in the Greynolds Park-Oleta River area, Hardwick said.
''He kept a very low profile,'' Hardwick said. ``He was not being seen often. There are four or five lakes in that area, and he'd been kind of lake-hopping. He was very successful at eating the neighborhood Muscovy ducks. He was one of the best-fed crocodiles I've ever seen.''
Before taking on the animal, Hardwick asked Sanchez to move the Zisks' Cadillac. She gingerly slipped into the passenger side of the car, the side away from the crocodile, and slid over to the driver's seat.
The creature, she said, stayed calm as she started the Caddie and eased it out.
Hardwick fashioned a lasso from a 50-foot length of cotton rope, and looped it around the animal. ''He went straight up into the air and went into a death roll,'' Hardwick recalled.
Hardwick let the animal thrash and roll for more than 20 minutes until it tired. He handed the rope to Sanchez, instructing her to keep it taut, then placed a loop over the exhausted croc's mouth and tightened it. Then Hardwick whipped out his trusty roll of electrical tape to wrap the beast's mouth and eyes and secure its legs -- while he and Sanchez sat on its back.
The animal was taken to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission facility where it was measured and tagged; surprisingly, the crocodile had never been caught previously. It was later released in extreme South Miami-Dade, said commission spokesman Willie Puz.
The neighborhood may not have seen the last of him, Hardwick said. Such creatures have strong homing tendencies. ''We will probably see him return to North Miami Beach in six months,'' he said.
To report a big reptile of concern, call the state's Nuisance Alligator Hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR.
One wild carport: Croc lazes where gator tread