A suspected burglar is dead after being attacked and eaten by an 11-foot-long alligator, News 13 in Orlando reported.
Matthew Riggins, 22, was reported missing on November 13. But part of the man’s body was found 10 days later floating in a pond in east central Florida.
Shortly before Riggins was reported missing, he called his girlfriend to inform her he would be in the area to break into homes, Brevard County Sheriff's Office told News 13.
"He was going to do burglaries in the Barefoot Bay area with another individual," Maj. Tod Goodyear said.
"He probably went into the lake to hide from the officers and the dog, and came across that gator," Goodyear said. "To hide somewhere to try and get away, and then meeting up with an animal like that, no, I've never had that happen before."
"He hid in the wrong place," Barefoot Bay resident said to News 13.
"I would say it's poetic justice, you want to sit there and steal from people," another neighbor echoing similar sentiments said.
The county medical examiner found proof of how Riggins was killed inside the gator’s stomach.
The Brevard County Sheriff's Office dive team also reported encountering the same gator while recovering the man's body. The animal was eventually euthanized by a trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
