Dewayne Yarbrough Arrested for Possession of a Dangerous Animal After Alligator Seized from His Ford Heights Home

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Cook County Sheriff’s Police removed a four-foot alligator from the home of a Ford Heights man who kept the reptile as a pet (Cook County Sheriff’s Video).

Dewayne Yarbrough, 43, of the 800 block of East 11th Place has been charged with possession of a dangerous animal.

Investigators with the Cook County Sheriff’s Office Animal Crimes Unit received information that Yarbrough was keeping an American alligator in confined conditions at his south suburban home. After obtaining a search warrant on Thursday, officers went to the residence, and located the alligator in a fish tank in the kitchen. Yarbrough told police he purchased the alligator five years ago in Indiana for $200. He stated that he kept the alligator as a pet because it attracted women. In order to keep the size of the alligator down, Yarbrough kept it in a small tank, and only fed it once a month – a meal of ten live mice. American alligators traditionally average between eight and fourteen feet in length.


View Larger Street View of 11th Place Avenue in Ford Heights, Illinois.

Police, with the assistance of Cook County Animal Control, were able to secure the gator and safely transport it to the Animal Welfare League in Chicago Ridge. It will be turned over later to the Chicago Herpetological Society.

Yarbrough’s next court date is July 5th in Markham.

Alligators can grow to 14.5 feet long and weigh over 1,000 pounds. According to the Everglades National Park website, the largest alligator ever recorded in Florida was 17 feet 5 inches. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission web site reports a Florida state record for alligator length at 14 feet 3.5 inches — a nuisance alligator captured on November 1, 2010 Lake Washington area of the St. Johns River in Brevard County..

The heaviest alligator on record weighed 1,043 pounds and was taken from Orange Lake in 1989. The alligator was also a nuisance alligator.

See also …
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Orlando-area nurse takes new state-record alligator



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