Wayward gator wanders into Savannah square

SAVANNAH - Late-night bar hoppers in downtown Savannah found an unlikely tourist hanging out in Franklin Square - a gator in the Garden of Good and Evil. <br> <br> The alligator, nearly 6 feet long, was spotted at about 2 a.m. Friday lounging against a brick wall in the square at one end of City Market, a bustling nightlife district of bars and restaurants. <br> <br> Jack Douglas, the on-call alligator trapper for Chatham County, said he snared the gator without incident as a crowd of about 30 people looked on. <br> <br> It&#39;s not uncommon for alligators to wander into parts of this coastal city as they seek water to keep cool during a drought, Douglas said. He&#39;s been called to catch 10 in the past week. <br> <br> But Douglas said it&#39;s the first time he&#39;s heard of an alligator in Savannah&#39;s historic district since he began trapping them in 1989. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s unusual to find one that far from the water,&#39;&#39; he said. ``That&#39;s the only one I&#39;ve ever caught in the downtown area.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Franklin Square is about a block from the Savannah River, but the alligator would have had to climb the sheer 40-foot bluff that separates the riverfront from the rest of downtown. <br> <br> If the gator crawled from the nearest drainage canal, it would have had to cross busy Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to reach the square. <br> <br> And it&#39;s highly unlikely any prankster would have wrestled a gator that big to transplant it to the square, Douglas said. <br> <br> Douglas said he&#39;s keeping the gator in a pool at his business and will likely sell it to an alligator farm. Once there, its sex will decide its fate. <br> <br> ``The females, they keep them and try to harvest the eggs,&#39;&#39; Douglas said. ``The males, they&#39;ll end up a wallet or a pocket book.&#39;&#39;