BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Folks just can't seem to stop talking about the alleged alligator of the Great Miami River.
"That thing's more important than the Mir space station!" Butler County Sheriff's Maj. Rick Sizemore said Thursday, responding to numerous news media inquiries and citizens' curiosity about a report of a reptile lurking near a popular fishing spot in the river.
Sheriff Harold "Don" Gabbard on Wednesday issued an "alligator alert." It came after a 17-year-old boy reported seeing a 6-foot-long alligator while fishing south of the Ohio 73 bridge near Trenton early Tuesday.
Since then, no has reported getting even a glimpse of the gator, Maj. Sizemore said.
The report is being taken seriously, though, partly because a 4-foot alligator was pulled from the river in December.
If a gator is in the river, police theorize "it probably just outgrew someone's basement or someone's aquarium," and the owner dumped it in the river, Maj. Sizemore said.
There's no widespread search effort, he said, but deputies have been spot-checking the area.
On Thursday morning, deputies approached several fishermen there, intending to inform them of the possible danger. But the warning wasn't needed, Maj. Sizemore said, because "almost everyone knows about it already."
