Back in August 2005, someone went and released a pet alligator into a local park lake here in the Los Angeles region. News concerning him can be found on one of our local paper's website here (The Daily Breeze):
http://www.dailybreeze.com/hottopics/1689546.html
Reggie's blog site:
http://www.savereggie.blogspot.com/
Several alligator wranglers were flown out here in order to try to catch the elusive animal. None of them had success catching him. Each attempt made Reggie more clever in terms of hiding from the public.
Steve Irwin told our city council people that he wanted to take a shot at catching the alligator (he repeated the statement during a Tonight Show appearance). The city had already spent $155,000 trying to catch the alligator. Everyone was happy and was looking forward to seeing him and watching his attempt. But Steve said that he wanted Reggie left alone for awhile so that Reggie would become more relaxed.
On the radio today, one of our city council people Janice Hahn said that she had arranged Qantas for fly Steve Irwin and his alligator traps in for free. She said that they weren't sure what they would do now with his passing.

So there you have it. Reggie is still on the loose.