- A Florida man looking for frisbees on a lake was killed in an alleged alligator attack, according to police.
- The body was found with his arm ripped off near the lake, which is next to a golf course.
- It is not the first time that someone looking for records is attacked by a caiman on the same lake.
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A man looking for frisbees on a Florida lake was found dead Tuesday with his arm ripped off in an incident that investigators believe was a possible alligator attack, police said.
The 47-year-old’s identity has not been revealed, Largo Police Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in a statement, according to NBC News. The body reported that his body was found in Lake Taylor in John S. Taylor Park.
“At the time, detectives believe the victim was looking for frisbees in the water and a crocodile was involved,” Largo police said, according to the media. “There are signs banning swimming in the lake.”
According to various reports, the man had been looking for frisbees to sell.
Paul Cozzie, the director of parks and conservation resources in Pinellas County, told The New York Times that the man was a “transient” man who made a living selling sporting goods to people who played on a golf course. near the lake.
Cozzie told The Times that local golfers prefer to use special, more expensive frisbees, not the ones you would normally buy at a grocery store.
The lake, where people can’t swim, could be up to eight feet deep, so you’d have to “kick the bottom” to find any stray frisbee, Cozzie said, according to the point of sale.
He added that park rangers had caught the man trying to enter the lake in April and warned that he would be barred from entering the park if he tried to do so again.
Ken Hostick, 56, who regularly plays disc golf near Lake Taylor, told the Tampa Bay Times that he knows of people trying to pick up lost frisbees on the lake.
“These are unlucky people,” he told the network. “Sometimes they dive into the lakes, take out 40 records. You can sell them for $ 5 a piece, and you can sell them for $ 10 a piece, depending on the quality.”
Tuesday’s incident was not the first time an alligator has attacked someone looking for frisbees on the same lake.
In June 2020, a man was bitten in the face while looking for frisbees, but managed to break free and get medical help, The Tampa Bay Times reported. According to the point of sale, he had been wading in Lake Taylor around 5 in the morning.
Both attacks occurred during the alligator mating season, which typically extends from May to June. If the recent incident is shown to be related to alligators, it would mark the first deadly alligator attack in Florida since 2019, according to the Florida Fish Conservation and Wildlife Commission.