FORT PIERCE, Fla. — Eighty-five-year-old Gloria Serge was killed last year when an alligator pulled her into a retention pond in her retirement community. Now, the woman’s family is suing the same community over her death.
An 11-foot-long gator grabbed Serge on Feb. 20, 2023, when she was walking her dog behind her home in Spanish Lakes Fairways, pulling her under the water, WPLG reported.
“My mom, who was in her 85th year, who could not swim, was grabbed by a 10-foot, 700-pound alligator and dragged into the water where she drowned in the most violent and terrifying way possible,” Serge’s son Bill Serge said.
But the gator’s presence wasn’t a surprise. Attorneys said that residents and staff members had named the gator Henry and that people would feed him chicken and other food, WTVJ reported.
Still, despite knowing that a large gator lived in the pond, community leaders in the Fort Pierce neighborhood put benches near the water and made the woman walk her dog near the water, attorneys allege in the wrongful death lawsuit against the community.
“Spanish Lakes is one of these communities that has a rule – you can’t walk your dog in the streets of your community,” attorney Gary Lesser said, according to WPTV. “In fact, Gloria was given a violation and eviction warning for walking her small dog in the front yard of her house.”
An eyewitness to the incident recounted what happened, saying that she tried to get help, first calling 911 and telling the octogenarian to get to a boat.
“I just remember her coming up and pushing her hair out of her face and I’m saying, ‘Swim toward the paddle boat,’ and she said, ‘I can’t, the gator has me,’” Carol, 77, who did not give her last name.
“I got my longest Shepard’s hook to try to hook her or hit him or do something,” she said, according to WPLG. “Hit him on the nose or something. I couldn’t do anything, which haunts me right now.”
Gloria Serge’s body was recovered and the gator was eventually captured, but not without some trouble.
“(We) snagged him on the bottom and he never surfaced. He stayed down the whole time,” a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission official said last year. “We were able to get a second hook in him and get a hard line in him so we could get him up.”
It took six people to wrangle the animal and load it into a truck. It was euthanized after the attack, CBS News reported.
The president of Wynne Building Corporation released a statement to WPLG. Joel Wynn said, “We certainly understand the tragedy and the feelings of Mrs. Serge’s family. However, we developed Spanish Lakes Fairways 37 years ago. We have approximately 3,000 residents. This is the very first time where a resident was attacked by an Alligator. Mrs. Serge was a longtime resident and certainly knew of the presence of alligators and that they were inherently dangerous animals.”
Her family is seeking at least $50,000 in damages from Spanish Lakes Fairways owner and operator Wynne Building Corporation and is also seeking a jury trial, CBS News reported.
Gloria Serge left behind five children, 15 grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren, WTVJ reported.
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