Florida woman shocked to find alligator in kitchen

By CNN

VIDEO:

Without this video (above), it's a story hard to believe. A trapper removed an alligator from someone's kitchen, but this was no alligator tale. Just ask the homeowner, Sandie Frosti.

"I heard a noise from the kitchen, and it was much too loud to be my cat, so I went to check it out," she said.

Sandie couldn't believe what she saw.

"Much to my surprise a very large alligator was in my kitchen."

She hid in the bedroom and called 911

"There's an alligator in my kitchen," she told dispatch.

This surprised the 911 operator who answered; she asked "are you sure it couldn't be like a iguana?"

Definitely not an iguana.

Sandie knew what she was looking at, an 8-foot, 8-inch alligator weighing more than 200 pounds. It's now in the hands of a trapper.

But how did it end up in Sandie's house when she doesn't even have water in her Eastlake Woodlands back yard?

It looks like it ventured from a pond in the neighborhood where reporters noticed gators like to hang, and it broke into her home. Once the alligator broke through the screened patio, it walked in through opened glass doors, and it made its way through the living room, leaving marks on the wall and eventually it stopped here right in the kitchen.

Sandie is said to be a good cook, but it looks like the alligator may have been after something else.

"He looked awfully well-fed, the police seem to think he was checking out my cat," she said.

Neighbors were surprised to say the least.

"I've never heard of such a thing ever, I just think it's just wild," Pinellas County, Fla. resident Anna Tararis said.

It's a wild story that couldn't be better if it was made up.

"In fact, they said I probably couldn't have come up with a better one if I tried," Sandie said.

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woofus42 (anonymous) says...

Saturday April 26, 2008, 12:56 am
Hi! I'm 19 and I'm from Colorado, and I have never given much thought to the alligators in Florida until now.

You know what's really sad-- that alligator was taken to a processing plant and killed for his skin and/or meat.

Florida has ordinances stating that if an alligator over 4 feet long is found near a residential area, even if the residential area is on gator territory and even if the alligator isn't posing a threat, a trapper is called in to catch the alligator and take them to a processing plant to be killed as a part of the state's "alligator harvest."

The worst part is that a full grown alligator can grow to be up to 13 or 14 ft long, so they're killing basically any alligator that isn't still a baby.

This policy is horrible. Does anyone have any ideas as to what we should do? I think for one thing, we should call and write to all of the media outlets that carried the story-- cnn, talk shows, local news, radio, online, etc.-- and inform them of the policy. Please, if you can, take the time to tell the news networks and the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife and other proper authorities what you think.

And please spread the word-- the more pewople know, the more people will care. There must be some way that these beautiful animals can be relocated of sent to a sanctuary.

Thank you so much for your help!

Please pray for this alligator. It's not his fault that their habitat is disappearing and food is becoming scarce.
--Rach

Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife:

http://www.floridaconservation.org/

"Nuisance" Gator Contact Info:

http://myfwc.com/gators/nuisance/NA_R...

Currently in Topeka, KS

KTKA