Broken tree limb looks like an alligator

FORT WALTON BEACH - In the dark, a shadowy figure looked ominous to some residents on Marshall Court.

It was an alligator, they told Fort Walton Beach police.

Police investigated the incident but found nothing startling in a fenced-in area around an apartment complex.

The "alligator" was actually a 4- to 5-foot-long broken tree limb.

The people who called police had spotted the limb from a second-floor window, and "could not see very well due to low light," an officer wrote in his report.

A 4-foot alligator was, however, lassoed in Destin last week. It was relocated to Blackwater Creek.

And in related wildlife news, a 4-foot boa constrictor was caught inside a garbage can at Wholesale Nation on Dec. 1. When no one from Panhandle Animal Welfare Services or the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission could respond, police took it to the station for safe keeping.