After all the local swans were eaten by alligators a Florida woman wrote to Queen Elizabeth for assistance. The Queen provided two royal Swans. The swans alive in Lakeland today are their direct descendants.
Remember that urban legend that said if you flushed a baby alligator down the toilet, the poor little fella would end up in the sewer, get enormous, have a major chip on its shoulder for being deserted, and then would go on a killing rampage? It’s actually the basis of a schlocky 1980 movie called Alligator.
Well, there’s a new alligator-centered urban legend you should familiarize yourself with because it’s a doozy…and police in Tennessee had to backtrack after the story went viral. Let’s begin, shall we?
Police in Loretto, Tennessee, posted a photo on Facebook about a drug bust. In the post, they also told people they shouldn’t flush their drugs down the toilet because it ends up in local waterways and that’s always bad news…oh, and it might create meth gators.
“Folks…please don’t flush your drugs m’kay. When you send something down the sewer pipe it ends up in our retention ponds for processing before it is sent down stream. Now our sewer guys take great pride in releasing water that is cleaner than what is in the creek, but they are not really prepared for meth.
Ducks, Geese, and other fowl frequent our treatment ponds and we shudder to think what one all hyped up on meth would do. Furthermore, if it made it far enough we could create meth-gators in Shoal Creek and the Tennessee River down in North Alabama. They’ve had enough methed up animals the past few weeks without our help. So, if you need to dispose of your drugs just give us a call and we will make sure they are disposed of in the proper way.”
People on social media bought into the hype and shared their thoughts.
And now we need to worry about meth gators. #Peak2019
Because the story went viral and people totally believed these doped-up reptiles might be coming to hunt them down, the Loretto Police Department had to clarify that meth gators are not, in fact, real.
Loretto Police chief Bobby Joe Killen said, “As far as I know, there’s no methed-up gators being sighted anywhere. It’s just a joke to let people know they don’t need to be flushing their drugs of any kind down the sewer system. They need to dispose of it in a proper manner.”
Killen added, “We take our job seriously, but we like to joke amongst ourselves at the department. When you work eight, 10-hour shifts in our line of work, there are times when we like to laugh a little bit. Otherwise, you take your problems home.”
I predict a horror movie franchise based on meth gators and I could not be more pleased about it!
Alligators in Louisiana have learned to balance sticks on their snouts specifically during egret and heron nesting season, when the birds are actively searching for nest materials. This is the first known case of predators using lures based on seasonal prey behavior.