Trappers Catch 11-Foot-Long Crocodile in Lake Tarpon

This post was reported and written by Patch Local Editors Sunde Farquhar and Rachel Jolley.

Update at 11:20 am July 11, 2013: Patch reader Aaron Sherwood passed along a photo of the croc being loaded up for the trip back to South Florida where it will be relocated.

Wanda Vekasi's seen a lot of alligators in the 13 years she's lived in her waterfront home on north Lake Tarpon and does not scare easily. 

She even swims in front of her home, knowing there are gators in the lake.

"I've been bumped by a 3-foot gator and that just doesn't scare me at all. Even the five-footers aren't that scary," she said.

But, Vekasi really got the willies Monday night when she realized the thing moving in the water out by her dock was not a cattail like she initially thought, it was 700 lb., 11-foot-long crocodile.

"He was so big. I was scared right away and I'm pretty tough. 

Those pointy things on his tail looked so evil," she said.

"My kids had told me six months ago that there was a crocodile in the lake. I wasn't that surprised. I knew there was a crocodile in the lake and he just happened to come to my house."

After realizing it was a huge crocodile, Vekasi called a trapper she'd been working with who had recently hung some meat out nearby in an effort to catch some nuisance alligators that were seen in the area.

"I'm going, 'Get here quick!'," she said.

Vekasi snapped a photo of the American Crocodile as it was laying on her neighbor's lawn. Its jaw was opened wide.

"You could just see big teeth. It was just scary," she said.

"I didn't go out there. I opened my living room window."

Vekasi says the trapper and his wife spent about four to five hours working to catch the croc, which they wound up capturing later Monday night, in the dark. She did not see them haul it away.

The croc's visit to Lake Tarpon raised the eyebrows of local experts, as this particular species is not known to travel so far north.

Officials from the Florida Wildlife Conservation told ABC Action News the crocodile will most likely be sent to a rehabilitation facility and then into the wild in south Florida.

According to National Geographic, the critically endangered American Crocodile "is among the largest of the world's crocodiles." Attacks on humans have been reported in coastal regions like Costa Rica and Panama, which are similar to places like Tampa Bay. 

It is also noted that crocodiles, like alligators, are more likely to be frightened and steer clear of humans than attack them.

But no doubt, seeing a big croc can be frightening.

"He was wicked scary," said Vekasi.

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