For a couple of years, we have been posting about Reggie, the alligator. Now, it appears that he has been relocated to the Los Angeles Zoo. Before the capture, one of my colleagues took this shot of Reggie floating serenely on Lake Machado in the Harbor City District of Los Angeles.
Photo credit & © Des Wong (used by permission)
Life was getting good for Reggie the alligator.
The scaly, 7-foot-long abandoned pet had basked in his own legend on the shores of Machado Lake for nearly two years.
Sightseers by the hundreds came to get a glimpse of the creature that had eluded professional gator wranglers over the months.
But about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Reggie’s luck simply ran out.
Read the rest of the story about Reggie’s capture (South Bay Breeze):
When the storied gator was finally captured by a team of quick-thinking park rangers, firefighters and a zoo worker, it all ended remarkably easily, and just inside of about 20 minutes.
Officially, the gator known as Reggie measured in at 61/2 feet long and appeared to be healthy with no obvious cuts or bruises, according to a zoo official who made a cursory examination of the animal.
That pronouncement ended what was a remarkable afternoon, the day Harbor City’s celebrity alligator was finally nabbed.
It all began when a pair of park workers spotted Reggie sunning himself on the southern shore of Machado Lake – with a partially eaten chicken leg lying nearby. He appeared to be settling in for a peaceful afternoon, conveniently wedged in behind a chain-link fence out of public view.
Inset: Reggie surveys his new home at the zoo. (courtesy Daily Breeze)
The two workers, Fred Dowell and Danny Hughes, decided to seize the moment.
Soon joined by Ian Recchio of the Los Angeles Zoo, who was summoned from a meeting in San Pedro, they crept up from behind – and pounced. Holding the panicked animal down, the three managed to get a loop around Reggie’s neck and taped the reptile’s mouth shut with duct tape.
Reggie was not happy.
“He was thrashing and hissing,” said Dowell, nicknamed the “alligator whisperer” by Councilwoman Janice Hahn because he probably saw more of Reggie in the past two years than anyone else.
Within minutes, 13 city firefighters received the call to assist and joined the pileup on top of the gator to restrain the surprised, thrashing animal.
Right behind them was Hahn, who coincidentally was in a meeting about the alligator with Recchio and fire officials at her San Pedro office just minutes away.
“We jumped in our cars as fast as we could” when the call came in from the park, Hahn said.
At Machado Lake, Hahn finally got her long-awaited formal introduction to the reptile, daring even to pet the hissing reptile ever so briefly.
Tied up and pulled onto a plastic skid by park rangers and firefighters, the protesting alligator was carried to a waiting animal control truck and driven, caravan style, north in an hourlong trek to the Los Angeles Zoo.
Thecapture ended a story that had turned legendary in Harbor City – the story of the seemingly invincible alligator that lurked beneath the waters, often unseen, and seemed destined never to be caught.
News of his capture spread quickly as Reggie fans, television cameras and reporters descended on Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park.
The Reggie caravan to the zoo was given all the pomp of a presidential motorcade, with sirens wailing and lights blaring – and, of course, this being L.A., live television coverage from overhead.
“It was unbelievable,” Hahn said. “We had helicopters following us.”
The alligator will remain in quarantine at the zoo, where veterinarians will examine him. Or her. The alligator’s true sex is one of many questions expected to finally be answered in the coming days.
A zoo official referred to Reggie’s new home as akin to “Club Med,” where he will be fed chicken, fish and other meats.
“He looked very healthy,” Hahn said. “He looked good.”
Finally getting up close with her most elusive constituent was, Hahn said later, a special moment.
“It was actually very emotional to be that close to him,” Hahn said in an interview as she rode up to the zoo. “I was petting him and saying goodbye.”
Los Angeles City Fire Capt. Lafayette Carter, struggling to maintain a serious tone as he recounted the call that came into Station 85, said he’d just returned from a paramedic run when he was summoned to respond to “an alligator.”
Minutes later, the Harbor City captain found himself, strangely enough, sitting on an alligator’s swinging tail.
“I was told to expect anything” in this line of work, said Carter, a Carson High School graduate.
Helping restrain the alligator was Assistant Fire Chief Lou Roupoli. Firefighters were thoroughly prepared and up to the challenge, Roupoli said.
“You just never know when you’re going to catch an alligator,” he said, estimating the gator weighed 120 to 140 pounds.
Freelance photographer Efrain Iniguez of Wilmington was in the right place at the right time. He was at the park looking to take some more shots of Reggie in the lake when the capture went down.
“(Reggie) was fighting. He didn’t want to get caught,” Iniguez said.
For many, the end brought mixed feelings.
“This is a very happy but sad day,” said park worker Dowell, sounding a bit wistful.
“I’m happy we got him without anybody being hurt. I knew the end would come, but I’ve been with him since the beginning.”
Reggie was first spotted on Aug. 12, 2005, and became an instant celebrity as television cameras and residents crowded the park in a partylike atmosphere, watching as a succession of wranglers from Colorado and Florida attempted to capture the gator. Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin promised to be the next in line before he was killed last year in an underwater accident.
Reggie disappeared from view for all of 2006, though, leading some to speculate he’d died.
But when the alligator suddenly resurfaced last month, Irwin’s crew from Australia said they’d be out in July to follow through on Irwin’s personal promise made to Hahn.
Now that he’s in custody, many would like to see Reggie kept at the Los Angeles Zoo in Griffith Park.
“They should stamp him `Property of Harbor City,”‘ said Leroy Martinez of Harbor City, suggesting that residents will charter a bus to visit Reggie once he’s on exhibit.
Gloria Gutierrez of Wilmington was wearing her homemade “Welcome Back Reggie” T-shirt at the park on the day of the gator’s capture.
“It’s kind of a shame,” she said. “I’ve been out here with my grandchildren. It just brought so many people together to talk about something good.”
“Everybody is going to miss Reggie,” said another bystander.
But Hahn said Reggie’s capture was a good thing.
“I’m relieved,” Hahn said. “I was always concerned about public safety and so this had a happy ending.”
But seeing Reggie in the zoo just won’t be the same, said Linda Cromer, a nurse from Kaiser medical center across the street from the park.
She’d brought her 12-year-old nephew to the park to see the alligator last weekend, swimming free in his lake.
“I wanted to see him one last time,” she said.
Then, as an afterthought, she added: “There are rumors that maybe this isn’t (the original) Reggie.”