THIBODAUX, La. — Why did the alligator cross the road?
Only the man in a now-viral cellphone video knows for sure.
Stevie Guin spotted him Wednesday afternoon walking down Canal Boulevard in Thibodaux with a live gator draped around his shoulders.
“I started fumbling for my phone and I was like I have to capture this because no one is going to believe that I just saw this walking across on Canal,” Guin said. “Just a random area for this to happen.”
The man was wearing only one shoe.
“I know his foot was hot because I know the blacktop can get hot right around noon and you could see he was kind of like limping through, stepping on the hot ground and the rocks and everything,” Guin said.
The man may have taken the gator from nearby Bayou Lafourche, Guin added.
“A little bit down the way there was a police officer and I believe animal control like stopped and picked up the alligator because you can’t really do that.”
A Thibodaux woman who saw the video said it is certainly unusual, but living on the bayou, not surprising.
“It looked like a four or five-foot alligator on his shoulder,” Karen Authement said. “Not something you see every day, but I guess in this part of town it could happen.”
In other sightings…
Last Friday, a large alligator wandered into a home through a doggy door in New Iberia.
The family dog alerted the homeowners.
They called wildlife agents who removed the intruder.
Back in Thibodaux, Guin says it’s all part of living in south Louisiana.
“It’s just something we grew up with. Don’t mess with them. They won’t mess with you.”
That means don’t walk down the street with an alligator around your neck.
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