Peach’s is the go-to breakfast restaurant for people who live in Bradenton, Florida.
But this morning was like no other.
And customers were terrified when they realized what police officers were sweeping out of this Florida restaurant.
From theme parks to beaches to crazy drunk people, Florida is known for a number of things.
The Sunshine State is also known for its diverse wildlife.
According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the state has “over 700 terrestrial animals, more than 200 freshwater fish, more than 1,000 marine fish, numerous other aquatic and marine vertebrates, and many thousands of terrestrial insects and other invertebrates.”
With such a wide diversity of wildlife, people have learned to expect an occasional encounter with some type of wild animal.
And that is exactly what happened recently at Peach’s restaurant when the employees showed up at 6 am to open the store for breakfast.
The employees walked up to find a five-foot alligator standing directly in front of the door of the restaurant.
They called the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to report the creature.
Deputies arrived soon after and decided to use a broom to sweep the beast from the property.
“They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day and this [gator] was ready for it when employees found him patiently waiting for them to open the Peach’s on SR 70 this morning at 6 a.m.,” the sheriff’s office wrote on social media. “Deputy Hartley kindly swept him off to a more comfortable wooded area.”
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The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission just finished taking its annual alligator census of up to 100 bodies of water around the state.
In Lake Okeechobee, the largest lake in Florida, officials counted nearly 25,000 alligators in the body of water.
They counted over 15,000 alligators in Lake Kissimmee and nearly 12,000 in Lake Jesup.
“FWC only had recent data for 55 of the waterways as part of the alligator census, but the FWC estimate comes out to 210,485 gators just in those waterways,” Click Orlando reported. “FWC also estimates there are about 1.3 million alligators throughout Florida.”
With over a million alligators, Florida residents should get used to more encounters with the wild beast.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
