[Note: I’ve seen news stories about this alligator in the past years (link and link, for example), it’s a shame that this happened to him and his owner. A GoFundMe page exists to help support efforts to find him.]
A tame celebrity “emotional support alligator” named Wally was stolen from an enclosed pen while his owner was visiting a friend in Georgia, leading to the alligator being captured by authorities who released him into a swamp not realizing who he was. The alligator was famous for loving to be around people, and he had never bitten anybody.
Some people stole Wally from his fenced outdoor enclosure in Brunswick, Georgia where he was sleeping between 4:30 am and 7:00 am, and they deposited him outside of someone’s home as some sort of a stupid prank, where the people in the house then called the authorities which led to the alligator being trapped and released in the wild. Presumably the perpetrators knew who the alligator was when they took him.
The trapper said that he released the alligator into a very large swamp with 20 other alligators, and it would very difficult if not impossible to find him. What is worse is that Wally would likely not be able to survive on his own due to being accustomed to being fed by people.
Wally’s owner Joie Henney made a TikTok video with a plea to help find him.
Wally’s Facebook page has been updating fans of the situation of Wally’s disappearance. [Note however that I’m not able to read it because I don’t have a Facebook account, it is a shame that they don’t have a social media account with another service that lets non-members read it.]