Not-so-happy hour: Gator spotted by entry to bar
By Ari Hait
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STUART, Florida (WPBF) — Staff and customers at a Stuart restaurant were surprised by an uninvited guest Monday afternoon when a gator was spotted just a few feet away from the front door.
A bartender at Hudson’s on the River first saw the gator on the rocks near the tiki bar on the side of the restaurant.
The bartender quickly informed assistant general manager Sarah Felten, who initially thought she was kidding.
“She said, ‘What’s our policy on alligators at the tiki?’” Felten said. “And I thought she was joking, so I kind of laughed and was just like, ‘They’ve got to be over 21.’ And she said, ‘No, there’s an alligator at tiki.”
Felten and operations manager Ben Foster went to check it out and saw the gator.
“He was just very docile,” Felten said.
“He was definitely not being aggressive in any way. He was just hanging out,” Foster said.
Despite the gator’s lack of aggression, Foster and Felten knew they couldn’t leave him there.
He had chosen a spot just a few feet away from where children and pets gather to play.
“Thankfully, he was only about four and a half feet, so it wasn’t a full-grown adult, but it was still definitely pretty scary,” especially given the proximity to areas where children and dogs play.
Felten attempted to scare the gator away but found it unafraid.
“I actually came in this area here to try and scare him off, and he was just not afraid of me at all,” she said. “I was more afraid of him than he was of me.”
The staff then called the Stuart police, who captured the now uncooperative gator.
“He was flipping and rolling around and hissing,” Felten said
“He was flipping and turning around, and then they kind of wrestled him down,” Foster said.
The police relocated the gator unharmed, leaving Foster with a memorable experience.
“It was wild. It was definitely nothing like we’d experienced before. I didn’t think I’d come to work today and see an alligator at my restaurant,” he said.
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