Alligators In New York Sewers

On October 12th 2008 a 8 ft Alligator that had been reported for months was finally caught and removed from the New York Sewer System near Central Park. The Alligator was put down and the contents of its stomach revealed rat remains and the remains of a dog. So the Alligator was living well down there in the New York Sewer System. Over the years people have claimed to see Alligators in the New York Sewer System and the Alligator in the photos above had crawled into a part of the New York Sewer System where it could come out into a small pond. Many people for several months had reported the Alligator but the reports were ignored until the Alligator snatched a dog as people watched. This time there was a investigation of the report and the 8 foot Alligator was caught as you can see in the above photo so this is truly one urban myth busted as true.

In February of 1935 several boys were shoveling snow into a open man hole cover into the sewer below when they saw something moving in the water below. It was a Alligator and the boys got a rope around it and pulled it from the water and up thru the open man hole cover.

What they pulled up was a 7 foot Alligator and as it snapped at them the boys beat it to death with their snow shovels. The New York times did a story about the boys finding the Alligator in the Sewer and the New York Times verified that the Alligator was just a inch or so over 7 feet long.

And that same year Teddy May who was the Superintendent of Sewers at the time started receiving reports of Alligators all over the sewer system. At first May thought it was a hoax but finally he went down into the sewers and almost at once he saw Alligators. Over the next few weeks May and his men hunted and killed 73 Alligators ranging in size from 2 ft. to 5 ft. and many men claimed to have seen much larger Alligators that got away. And over the years since 1935 reports of Alligators in the New York Sewer System have continued to come in. In 1999 a 5 ft Alligator was killed in Brooklyn and reported in the newspapers and then in October of 2008 the 8 ft. Alligator at the top of this hub page was caught. So I think we can safely say that this Urban Myth has been busted as true.

What do you think about Alligators in the New York Sewer System? Did you know that Alligators had really been killed and captured in the sewers. Feel free to post a comment below and let us know what you think.