A Florida man had his arm ripped off by a 10-and-a-half-foot alligator behind a joint called Banditos Bar — before a hero fellow drinker helped pull him to safety.
The 23-year-old victim, who was identified as Jordan Rivera, was last seen in the bar next to a pond in Port Charlotte, Fla., according to officials and customers.
An apparently unfazed Rivera told WSAT, “I didn’t lose my life, I lost an arm, it’s not the end of the world, you know.”
Banditos regular Manny Hidalgo told The Daily Sun that he raced out to help Rivera after hearing screams just before 1:45 a.m. Sunday.
“He was yelling and swimming toward the shoreline,” said the construction worker, who goes to the bar with his pet cat, Mr. Tom.
“I ran and dragged him up onto the sand. I was scared to get close to the water because it was dark out,” said the Banditos regular.
“Did I think about the gator being in the water? Yes, I did,” he added to told Wink News, with Mr. Tom perched on his shoulder.
“I was scared for sure … And then I noticed he was missing an arm,” he said, saying it was “literally chewed up.”
From his hospital bed, Rivera told NBC, “those gators, I didn’t truly understand them until I woke up in the hospital and, ‘Oh, gator got your arm.
“They got my elbow. So, I don’t have an elbow,” Rivera said. “I can still move my arm around and whatnot.”
It was not immediately clear if Rivera was dragged into the pond or had gone in for an early-hours swim. Either way, Hidalgo said, he was amazed he could pull him out because he “was a pretty big guy.
“I’m not sure how I did it. I guess my adrenaline kicked in,” he told the local paper of being “at the right place at the right time.
“The guy was kinda not coherent at all,” he recalled to WINK, adding, “I wouldn’t be either If I was missing an arm.”
He predicted the animal attacker was either “a mama gator trying to protect her young or a daddy trying to feed.
“I mean, he [got] fed. He took off with an arm and left him alone, so [the victim] is lucky to be alive.”
Todd Dunn, a spokesman for Charlotte County Fire and EMS, confirmed that Rivera lost an arm. He was taken by helicopter to Gulf Coast Hospital in Fort Myers, where he remains getting treatment.
A trapper later removed a 10-and-a-half-foot alligator from the pond, which was humanely killed, wildlife officials said.
“This is Florida, and there are predators,” Hidalgo said.
“I know it’s mating season, so I hope people are more aware of their surroundings.”
With Post wires
