METAIRIE – It was quite the startling sight for people in the Bucktown area of Jefferson Parish Monday.
An alligator estimated to be about seven-feet long emerged from a drain and began moving around shortly after the heaviest of the rains poured into the area around midday.
"First his head emerged out of the drain, and then his whole body," Metairie resident Steven Nicholson said.
"I came out here to go to a doctor's appointment and there was a gator out here, just chillin," Bucktown resident Hazel Porter said.
The alligator was located behind Marie Riviere elementary school, which did not have class Monday, according to the calendar on the school’s web site.
"I'm glad they weren't in school. They were on spring break. Because they would've freaked out a bunch of kids in the yard playing," Porter said.
Bucktown resident Paul D'Anna and a few other men initially detained the alligator, who did not go easily.
"I'm glad wildlife is here to take care of it now," D'Anna laughs, "Because believe me, it's alot of anxiety for me."
Eventually some professionals showed up and taped the gator's mouth shut, tied it up and placed it into the
back of a pickup truck.
"I couldn't believe it," Nicholson laughed, "Doesn't happen everyday, and I hope it doesn't happen again," Nicholson said.
The men who wrangled the alligator said they plan on relocating the reptile to Bayou Segnette.
