Florida man searching lake for Frisbees killed by alligator

By Steve Gorman

(Reuters) – The mutilated physique of a person killed by an alligator was discovered on the fringe of a Florida lake the sufferer was identified for wading into, regardless of posted warnings, to gather misplaced Frisbees to re-sell them, officers mentioned on Wednesday.

The person, recognized as Sean Thomas McGuinness, 47, and described by police as a transient, turned the primary human alligator fatality documented in Florida since 2019, mentioned Paul Cozzie, Pinellas County director of parks and conservation assets.

The person’s corpse, with one arm ripped off, was found on Tuesday morning by an individual strolling a canine alongside the shoreline of 53-acre (21.5-hectare) reservoir in John S. Taylor Park in Largo, Florida, a Tampa Bay-area group about 15 miles (24 km) northwest of St. Petersburg.

Though the health worker has but to find out an official explanation for dying, Cozzie mentioned there was little doubt how McGuinness met his destiny, and that wildlife trappers had already eliminated two alligators deemed to be attainable culprits.

“At the moment, detectives imagine the sufferer was on the lookout for Frisbees within the water, and a gator is believed to be concerned within the dying,” the Largo Police Division mentioned in an announcement. It mentioned he was discovered inside a number of toes of a disc within the water.

Cozzie mentioned the person was identified to frequent the park and wade into the lake, in defiance of “no-swimming” indicators, to be able to retrieve Frisbees misplaced from an adjoining disc-golf course, then promote them to park guests “as a technique to hold a number of {dollars} in his pocket.”

McGuinness had been warned by park rangers beforehand to remain out of the lake, and was threatened with trespassing citations on at the very least two events in April, Cozzie mentioned. One other man doing the identical factor was bitten within the face by an alligator a few years in the past however survived, he mentioned.

Within the newest occasion, McGuinness apparently entered the water round daybreak, which Cozzie described as “prime time” for alligator exercise. The assault additionally occurred within the midst of mating season for the reptiles, throughout which male alligators are extra territorial and aggressive than regular, Cozzie mentioned.

McGuinness acknowledged that proximity of the disc-golf course to the sting of the lake is likely to be a problem, in that one of many basket “holes” on the course was positioned inside 50 toes (15 meters) of the water.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Enhancing by Sandra Maler)