Alligator found in storm drain of West Miami-Dade

Miami, Florida – A group of West Miami-Dade neighborhood kids found a new friend into the storm drain.
“We were playing catch and this guy over here threw a bad throw and it rolled into the storm drain. And I go, ‘Oh, Luis, look a turtle. And then he came running and he goes no it is moving,” recalled Javier Alvarez.
The boys say they jumped back. “And I said, ‘That’s not a turtle!’ And he realized it was a gator,” Fernandez said.
Their new friend was the alligator that was not as little as its friends. “We were first saying it was f4 feet but now they are saying it is 9 feet.”
Both Fernandez and Alvarez said they would check on the animal daily. “The next day we didn’t see it, but we knew it was there because the water was still moving. I would keep looking if he was there,” Alvarez said.
On Tuesday the Florida Fish and Wild Life Conservation Commission responded to the neighbors’ calls and came to remove the gator. “When we attempted to move the gator, it backed away and we called public works they used some water pumps to push water through the storm drain and he went into the positive outflow into the canal,” said FWC Officer Ron Washington.
Washington said the alligator is back in its natural habitat. “When no animals are hurt, then our mission has been fulfilled. We are the FWC, and protecting our natural resources is number one and public safety,” Washington said.