An alligator brain is the size of a peanut. What Reggie makes of his unusual life story is a mystery. A decent chunk of L.A.’s budget - $180,000 - went to Reggie-related expenses. His name appeared in headlines from Long Beach to London. You could buy T-shirts emblazoned with Reggie’s likeness. But once upon a time - before P-22, before Grumpy Cat and Doug the Pug - people gathered by the hundreds just to catch a glimpse of the celebrity gator. Some visitors stop to read it a lot of them don’t. He lives companionably with a female named Tina, and if you think it’s easy for two alligators to pair up later in life without trying to bite each other’s limbs off, well, you don’t know a lot about alligators.īetween the two fences that separate Reggie’s enclosure from the public is a sign with the thumbnail version of his remarkable journey to the Los Angeles Zoo 15 years ago today. When it’s chilly, he doesn’t do much of anything. His father, automotive worker Marco Reyes, was certain Monday’s gator was Reggie.Reggie, the most famous alligator in Los Angeles, lives in a beautifully landscaped midcentury dwelling just outside Los Feliz. Three-year-old Anthony David Reyes, also of Harbor City, was certain he’d spy Reggie. “I could grab his tail and catch him,” said 4-year-old Corien Yokley, visiting the lake late Monday with Harbor City family members. Some point out that city officials quickly relocated a smaller alligator caught in September 2005 in a Harbor City drainage ditch to the Los Angeles Zoo. Reggie’s fans, meanwhile, were hoping that the reptile - now grown to an estimated 7-foot length - stays visible for a while this time around. “We’ve spent $180,000 at last count on public safety here because of Reggie,” Hahn said. Natow, with the LAPD from 1984 to 2001, has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor charges tied to Reggie’s possession and lake release. Authorities said Reggie had grown too large for a backyard pool where he was being kept.īrewer pleaded no contest to a state wildlife law violation and was sentenced to probation. Ex-Los Angeles police officer Todd Natow and a friend, Anthony Brewer, both from San Pedro, were arrested after an anonymous tip led investigators to the pair.
In the meantime, Hahn said, she is hoping to obtain restitution from two men who have been charged with dumping Reggie in the lake in mid-2005. Irwin was killed by a stingray off Australia’s Great Barrier Reef last September. Hahn said she planned to call associates of the late “Crocodile Hunter” Steve Irwin, whom she said volunteered his team to search for Reggie. Less than a month later, Quinn proved that Reggie wasn’t the only one on the lam: Quinn was arrested on a Louisiana probation violation charge. I am not going to allow Gatorland to be referred to as ‘retarded.’ ”
The hurricane refugee, Thomas “T-Bone” Quinn, had angered the Floridians by calling their use of a pontoon boat in the lake “retarded.” Insulted, they piled ashore and headed for home, with Gatorland team leader Ted Williams sniffing: “I will not allow some swamp rat to walk into a situation and make comments.
REGGY THE ALIGATOR PROFESSIONAL
Professional alligator hunters, including a self-proclaimed gator expert uprooted from the swamps of Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina, and a team from Gatorland in Florida, spent months in 2005 unsuccessfully searching for Reggie after the creature was allegedly dumped in the lake by owners who considered him too big to keep.
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