Man says he caught another alligator in Humboldt Park lagoon, police investigating

Chicago police are investigating an incident in which a man said he fished another alligator out of the Humboldt Park lagoon.

In a video posted to Facebook Live about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, the man is seen holding an alligator with black tape around its jaws just outside the Boathouse Cafe in Humboldt Park.

“I thought I might have seen a gator, and, put on a hook that could catch a gator and … I got a gator,” the man tells a group of onlookers.

Police arrived about 10 minutes later and questioned the man and his brother, who was with him, Chicago police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The two gave conflicting statements, according to Guglielmi.

An investigation revealed one of the men had been in contact with Frank Robb, the Florida-based alligator expert who caught the first alligator, earlier this month, Guglielmi said. That man believed he and his brother had come close to catching the first gator as well.

Police then reached out to Robb, who said the alligator in the Facebook Live video was too young to have survived in the lagoon for any period of time, according to Guglielmi. He also said there had been only one gator in the lagoon when he trapped it several weeks ago.

The three-foot alligator from Saturday’s incident was turned over to the city’s Department of Animal Care and Control, Guglielmi said. The two brothers were taken into custody but released pending further investigation.