Orange County Deputy nabs 13-foot, 737.5-pound gator
Posted by: Timothy Tibbetts on 09/09/2013 03:06 AM
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The Orange County Sheriff's Office posted this on their Facebook page.
Our deputies have many passions when off the job like golf or fishing. But Deputy Jason Forgey’s escape comes in August at the beginning of alligator hunting season, when he gets his official hunting permit. Take a look at the monster that he and his hunting partner recently bagged!
Deputy Forgey and Jeff Harris (a recently retired Winter Park Police detective) along with Jeremy Harris spotted this 13 footer while hunting on the Econ River in Seminole County. It took two encounters and hours of struggling to capture the whopping 737.5 pound reptile. Here’s the rest of the story as told by Deputy Forgey:
“After a short drive to Cocoa we arrive at the alligator processing facility where we are blessed with a pole mounted winch to assist in removing the gator from the boat. As I raise the gator from the boat I hear the winch straining. I watch as the head of the alligator reaches the top of the pole only to look back into the boat to see more of him in the boat than out of the boat. I am beginning to realize just how big this capture really is. After we each attempted to guess how big he would be, we took the official measurement.13 feet even! WOW!! This was an impressive alligator for sure, but not only was he long; he was fat. At this point we hooked a digital scale onto the winch and hoisted the alligator up again, this time tying the tail up so the entire alligator hung from the scale without touching the ground. As the scale settled I couldn't believe my eyes……737.5 pounds! As I stared at the scale in disbelief it began to sink in that this was the gator of a lifetime. To put it in perspective, the recent record breaking alligator captures in Mississippi shown all over the national news were 10 pounds less than this alligator. The largest alligator ever captured in Florida was over 14 feet, but only weighed 654 pounds.”
Our deputies have many passions when off the job like golf or fishing. But Deputy Jason Forgey’s escape comes in August at the beginning of alligator hunting season, when he gets his official hunting permit. Take a look at the monster that he and his hunting partner recently bagged!Deputy Forgey and Jeff Harris (a recently retired Winter Park Police detective) along with Jeremy Harris spotted this 13 footer while hunting on the Econ River in Seminole County. It took two encounters and hours of struggling to capture the whopping 737.5 pound reptile. Here’s the rest of the story as told by Deputy Forgey:
“After a short drive to Cocoa we arrive at the alligator processing facility where we are blessed with a pole mounted winch to assist in removing the gator from the boat. As I raise the gator from the boat I hear the winch straining. I watch as the head of the alligator reaches the top of the pole only to look back into the boat to see more of him in the boat than out of the boat. I am beginning to realize just how big this capture really is. After we each attempted to guess how big he would be, we took the official measurement.13 feet even! WOW!! This was an impressive alligator for sure, but not only was he long; he was fat. At this point we hooked a digital scale onto the winch and hoisted the alligator up again, this time tying the tail up so the entire alligator hung from the scale without touching the ground. As the scale settled I couldn't believe my eyes……737.5 pounds! As I stared at the scale in disbelief it began to sink in that this was the gator of a lifetime. To put it in perspective, the recent record breaking alligator captures in Mississippi shown all over the national news were 10 pounds less than this alligator. The largest alligator ever captured in Florida was over 14 feet, but only weighed 654 pounds.”
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