Peach’s restaurant is a popular and highly rated breakfast spot for residents of Bradenton, Florida.
But when people showed up for breakfast, they found something waiting for them they did not expect.
And customers who wanted breakfast almost became breakfast when they showed up at this popular Florida spot early one morning.
THE FLORIDA LIFE IS GREAT
Florida is known for many things: theme parks, beaches, and the infamous Florida Man.
However, the Sunshine State is also known for its diverse wildlife.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission claimed that 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.”
As a result of the diverse wildlife, Floridians have come to expect an occasional encounter with some type of wild animal.
That is precisely what happened recently at Peach’s restaurant when the employees showed up at 6 a.m. to open the store for breakfast.
Employees walked up to find a five-foot alligator standing directly in front of the restaurant entrance.
They called the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office to report the alligator on the loose.
Deputies quickly arrived at the scene and used a broom to sweep the gator away from the restaurant.
The Sheriff’s Office wrote on social media, “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. . . .Deputy Hartley kindly swept him off to a more comfortable wooded area.”
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission recently completed its annual alligator census of up to 100 bodies of water around the Sunshine State.
In Lake Okeechobee, the largest lake in the state, officials counted approximately 25,000 alligators.
Officials counted over 15,000 alligators in Lake Kissimmee, and roughly another 12,000 in Lake Jesup.
Click Orlando reported that “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. FWC also estimates there are about 1.3 million alligators throughout Florida.”
Considering there are over 1 million alligators in the state, Floridians should get comfortable with more encounters with this wild beast.
Informed American will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
