But that’s the thing. Most Floridians know better than to enter dark, still waters. Hell, even students on the University of Florida campus know they shouldn’t mess around at Lake Alice because of gators (though some need some physical example). Plus, there are signs.
And Largo tends to be a little more wild than the UF campus.
Lake Alice takes a heavy toll in small dogs, by the way.
ETA: The thing that always amazed me was that Baby Gator Preschool on campus is directly across the street from Lake Alice. Of course, there’s a fence around the play area, but geez.
You’re right. I first heard this story on the reddit disc golf sub. (I used to play this course pretty often when I lived in St Pete). The person killed was a local homeless man with the nickname “Rocstar” (the “Roc” is a popular disc golf disc shape by Innova). Rocstar routinely dove in the lake to collect lost discs and resell them at the local disc shop. Disc Shops will often give $2-3 per discs to the finder and then contact the owner (if there’s a name/number on the disc, which is common practice). Then they’ll “sell” it back to the owner for the same $2-3 finders fee. Good way to build rapport with the disc community and get people into the shop to buy stuff. If you don’t come to collect or there’s no name/number they’ll re-list for sale. So, Rocstar used this as an income stream. The “dog walker” who found him was apparently the OP on reddit who said he could roughly ID Rocstar by his tattoos and his bike nearby. He said that his arm had been ripped off. Pretty much how you die from an alligator attack. Gator chomps your arm and goes into the death roll and your arm pops off. Then the gator will cache your body somewhere to eat on it later. Gotta feel bad for the guy but he knew the risks.
crocs in the keys are semi-protected and greatly outnumber gators. there is a freshwater hole on Big Pine that is home to a few gators, but mostly we have the salties.
there is a 13 foot male that lives in the canal by where a friend lives. you read about “george” a lot locally. he likes to sun on people’s docks and may have eaten a pupper or two, but he is “hands off”. FWC don’t mess around, either and there are more of them than county po-po, fo sho.
kill a croc and it is you going into custody
Anyone living or visiting Florida should already know that any body of water should be suspected of having an alligator in it. Alligator is the default state of water if Florida.
hehe! a safety lanyard! like the ankle leash to your surf/ paddleboard.
at least attach a small neodymium magnet to the disc. then, if it goes into the drink, one can practice their fishing cast and drag for it with a piece of metal on the line.
and most assuredly, crocdillians are the default in any body of water here.
