Gator Goes to Hollywood

Aug. 18, 2005— -- There's an alligator on the loose in the Los Angeles area today.

The 6- to 8-foot-long reptile was discovered in Harbor City's Lake Machodo last week by a fisherman. Since then, people have used just about everything to try to lure the alligator out of the water.

"We were thinking maybe Taco Bell or McDonald's would do it," one bystander said.

With the growing crowd of amateurs trying to grab the gator, local authorities finally called in a professional alligator wrangler from Colorado.

Jay Young, manager of the Colorado Gator Farm and Reptile Park in Mosca, Colo., has become an instant local celebrity in a place where neither alligators nor gator wranglers are common.

He and his crew dragged large fishing nets across the lake on Tuesday, and although they surrounded the alligator once, the net was too deep for the shallow lake and could not be dragged around the gator.

Young -- who wears a leather cowboy hat and an alligator-tooth necklace -- has vowed to forfeit his $800 a day fee if he cannot catch the alligator, and said he would wrestle the reptile if he had to, according to the Los Angeles Times.

His technique for catching the alligator?

"Don't hesitate and don't let go," Young said.

The alligator, if caught, will be taken to the Los Angeles Zoo.