Police officers were using boats Tuesday to continue to search for an alligator that remains on the loose six days after it was first spotted in the water near a Middlesex Borough park.
“This is a very novel thing for New Jersey. We don’t have alligators in the water. We’re not Florida,” Middlesex Borough Police Lt. Thomas Falk told NJ Advance Media.
Officers used drones on Monday in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the alligator, Falk said.
Police said there were several unconfirmed sightings Monday, including a report from a bystander who claimed that the alligator briefly surfaced on Lake Creighton in Middlesex Borough and attacked a duck.
An officer fired a single shot at the alligator on Saturday in the Ambrose Brook, but the reptile immediately submerged and police do not know if it was struck, Falk said.
Police closed Victor Crowell Park on Monday due to a surge in visitors looking for the alligator after the widely-reported sightings in the area.
“We did have a significant amount of people in the park Sunday into Monday,” Falk said.
The alligator is estimated to be three to four feet in length. It was described by police on Monday as “capable of inflicting serious or fatal injuries.”
Lake Creighton is commonly known as the Duck Pond, police said, and the Ambrose Brook serves a conduit between the lake and the Raritan River.
Alligators are not native to New Jersey and it is not known how the reptile ended up in Middlesex Borough, officials said.
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Rob Jennings may be reached at [email protected].
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