Story Archive

Watch the Birdie!

“I’m going to try and grab it,” said Anthony Larrimore, 24. “Watch the gator.” He and Laciey D’Agostino, 21, were on a boardwalk at Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve in Fort Myers, Fla., when, while taking pictures of an alligator, he dropped the smartphone he was using. It landed right by the gator. The couple, from Cape Coral, really wanted the phone back: it had the only copies of 10 months of photos of their baby boy. “I just kept thinking about the pictures on there and I couldn’t leave without it,” D’Agostino said. The gator “made this crazy, hissing-slash-grunting sound,” she said, and moved its snout on top of the phone as if to claim it. As Larrimore reached for the phone, the gator “seemed like he wanted to get a bite out of my boyfriend’s arm. He was trying to lure him in, to put his arm at the right angle.” Larrimore was able to retrieve the phone without losing his arm. “But it does not turn on,” he said. “Go figure.” (RC/Ft. Myers News Press) ...Remember: when you back up important data, you don’t have to fight alligators.