Alligator caught after Belle Isle spotting
It’s hot. It’s huge. It’s called the ‘Great Lakes Serpentarium.’ We toured it, and she’s got a lot of new reptilian friends already. Take a look at when she was first spotted.
WESTLAND, Mich. (FOX 2) – It’s ‘see ya later alligator’ for the newest resident at Belle Isle. The gator has been captured and found a new home in Westland at the Great Lakes Serpentarium.
Big picture view:
Cell phone video from a woman who was paddle-boating at Belle Isle on Sunday. The DNR checked it out, and the hunt was on.
On Wednesday, around noon, the gator was picked up by two guys, Steven Hart and Troy Keteyian. Hart says it took him four hours, but he saw the alligator swimming along the coastline. She ducked under a tree, he followed her, and built a bit of a rock wall to corner her. Keteyian popped out, and both put her in a net.
What’s so special about all this is the two guys didn’t know each other. They met on Wednesday as they were catching her. They call it divine timing.
“Yesterday it all lined up where I felt like time was pressing, pulled over to a couple of spots and then just asked a lady if she had seen the alligator,” said Hart. “And she gave me the exact coordinates to it. And then this morning I hit something. My tire blew up. I had to change into a spare. And everything lined up for, it seemed like an inconvenience, but I met him right at the gator, and we caught her.”
“And I was just checking out the outer banks of the island momentarily before I came over to where he was. And if it wasn’t for that, I would’ve missed him, you know. So that’s the divine timing for sure,” said Keteyian.
What you can do:
If you want to see her for yourself or check this place out, the Great Lakes Serpentarium opens on Oct. 31 at 1 p.m.