Alleged burglar eaten by alligator while hiding from police
Officials believe the gator killed and partially ate a Florida man hiding from police in a lake
A suspected burglar jumped in a Florida lake apparently hiding from law enforcement before an 11-foot alligator killed him, investigators said Monday. His hand and foot reportedly turned up inside the animal's stomach.
The alligator that killed a suspected burglar in Florida. (Brevard County Sheriff's Office)
Brevard County Sheriff's Maj. Tod Goodyear says 22-year-old Matthew Riggins told his girlfriend he would be in Barefoot Bay to commit burglaries with another suspect. Authorities received calls Nov. 13 about two suspicious men in black walking behind homes and investigated. Riggins was reported missing the next day.
Goodyear said sheriff's divers recovered Riggins' body 10 days later in a nearby lake, and that the injuries suggested the alligator had pulled him below the surface. "He hid in the wrong place," resident Laura Farris told Bay News 9.
Matthew Riggins. (Brevard County Sheriff's Office)
Authorities said Riggins drowned and the alligator, which behaved aggressively toward divers, was trapped and euthanized.
Florida Today reports a second person was taken into custody.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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