SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. — A 13-year-old boy placed a calm and collected call to 911 to report that he’d been bit by an alligator on Tuesday.
“I just got bit by a gator,” he told the operator.
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The boy said he’d been swimming in Howell Creek before 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Tuskawilla neighborhood of Winter Springs. He said was walking along the banks when the gator bit him on his hip.
“I’m OK though,” he said. “I can walk and I can stand. I’m fine. It just, it just stings a little bit, but I’m good.”
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The boy told 911 operators that after it happened he ran to a nearby house on Mt. Laurel Drive for help. On Wednesday, trappers were out in the neighborhood looking for that gator, which they believe is at least 9 feet long.
Trapper Jerry Flynn said so far their efforts to trap the gator have been unsuccessful. But Flynn said the creek has plenty of gators since it feeds into Lake Jesup.
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“We don’t quit. We’re gonna trap this thing and get him out of here and get these waterways safe again,” Flynn said.
The boy was transported to Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children, and he is expected to make a full recovery.
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