When Colorado gator-getter Jay Young learned that someone claiming to be him had called the media Tuesday to report he had captured Los Angeles’ most-wanted – a 7-foot-long alligator named Reggie – he knew it was a crock.
“An AP reporter called me as soon as I got to work and wanted to ask me more questions. More questions? I haven’t been in L.A. since Aug. 18,” Young said.
The impersonator called several California media outlets, including The Associated Press, and said he had captured the famous gator overnight.
The hoax was discovered when Reggie was not delivered to the Los Angeles Zoo as promised Tuesday.
Young said he spent Tuesday at the family’s Mosca alligator farm, 15 miles north of Alamosa, explaining himself on the phone to the media.
“I was furious. Furious. I was so mad, I wrestled a couple of gators. Then I felt better. But it took me five hours to calm down.”
He corralled the gators, he explained, to give them antibiotics.
Young suspects a former employee made the call and said he’s considering calling the county sheriff to pursue criminal charges.
Young, 31, spent 52 hours trying to capture Reggie in mid-August before a media frenzy, vendors hawking T-shirts and a crowd throwing raw chicken and jelly rolls into Machado Lake, 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
Young said he originally went to California after Los Angeles authorities told him that it was an emergency.
“They were afraid it was going to eat someone,” Young said. “That thing wouldn’t eat you unless you’re a toy poodle.”
The gator, which was allegedly released into into the weedy waters illegally by a former Los Angeles police officer, remains at large.
Young offered to return and try again “when things settled down,” but city officials instead have called in gator gurus from Gatorland in Orlando, Fla., for a second time.
“They’re more than capable of catching it – if they can find it,” Young said.
Staff writer Dave Curtin can be reached at 303-820-1276 or dcurtin@denverpost.com.
