By Drew Stewart - bio | email
SUMTER, SC (WIS) - Talk about an early morning surprise.
One family checked their porch at around 3:00am last Thursday and found a nearly nine-foot alligator.
Fred Smith of Sumter says his daughter heard something on the family's front porch.
"She peeped the blind open to take a look, but she didn't see anything. But then she looked down and saw a shadow," said Smith.
At first, he thought the shadow might be a burglar. But when his daughter looked closer, she saw a tail moving.
"And then she identified the head. And then she started yelling and yelling and yelling," said Smith.
Smith called 911 and reported a 10-foot long alligator was on his porch.
Lt. Rick Nelson with the Sumter County Sheriff's Department responded. In his 22 years on the force, he says he's heard calls like these before.
"When I got here, I figured it be a four or five foot alligator," said Lt. Nelson.
Instead, he found a gator measuring in at 8 feet, 8 inches long. Law enforcement on the scene did everything to subdue the gator.
"We tried everything. We tried to shut his mouth with a rake, and you can see what he did to the rake," said Lt. Nelson.
In the meantime, Smith got to see the fight of his life, especially when things started going the officer's way. But the gator wasn't going without leaving his mark.
"When he saw he was losing, he reared back and he was trying to bite whatever was there. And he grabbed on to the pole. And that's when I got out of the way because it got real hostile after that," said Smith.
When it was all said and done, it took five officers, a truck and a gun to subdue the animal, which had to be put down by deputies.
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Source: Renee Wilson
