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Baby Alligators In The Sewers Grow Up Fast In Philly
By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 14, 2013
Modified Jun 14, 2013
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By
John Del Signore
Published Jun 14, 2013
Modified Jun 14, 2013
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It's common for cynical New Yorkers to shrug off the legions of alligators that roam our sewer system as the stuff of Urban Legend, but every now and then one of these creatures rears its fanged head above ground, and then you have to send a letter of apology to that drunk guy at the end of the bar who you thought was just a gullible gator conspiracy theorist. In August of 2010, to cite one example, an 18-inch gator crawled out of a sewer grate in Astoria. And in, uh, 1935, the Times reported that a teenager trapped and killed an 8-foot-long alligator found under 123rd Street. This town's crawling with gators, and you can also find them in Philadelphia, too.
The 18-inch alligator seen here was spotted near a sewer grate in the Philadelphia neighborhood of Fishtown. The Associated Press reports that police captured the reptile and delivered it to the city's Animal Care & Control Team, where they've named it Allie-Gator. The creature's gender remains unknown because, as one member of the Animal Care & Control team puts it, "Who's going to do that job?"
[FULL DISCLOSURE: This blog post sponsored by our shameless desire to revisit cherished Radiohead b-side "Fog" on a dreary Friday.]
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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