HOT SPRINGS -- Business continued as usual Monday at the Arkansas Alligator Farm and Petting Zoo despite the theft of 12 baby alligators from Louisiana and a 7-year-old alligator from the attraction early Saturday.
"Supposedly there are a couple of leads on it, but as of today, we're open," said Jamie Bridges, manager of the alligator farm. "We had 144 before those were taken, and we don't have many of those little ones."
Bridges said that the farm works closely with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission when wild alligators are found in area lakes.
"We're a sanctuary here, and when [Game and Fish] has an alligator they need moved to a refuge, they are brought here," he said. "To mate, alligators need at least 4 to 5 feet of water, and our ponds are only 2 or 3 feet deep.
"We also work with the Rockefeller [Wildlife Refuge] down in Louisiana, and that's where we got the 12 babies just about a month ago." Each of the babies is 3 inches long.
According to The Associated Press, the facility is offering a $200 reward for information leading to the alligators' return.
Bridges said the Game and Fish Commission can levy a fine of $1,000 against anyone caught with an alligator without a permit.
Security footage from 2:40 a.m. Saturday showed two people wearing masks and camouflage as they broke in and placed the 13 alligators in backpacks, leaving in less than three minutes. The older alligator was 2½ feet long.
Bridges said he believes the pair had been at the farm sometime before the theft because they knew exactly what they wanted and where the animals were.
"They had to have been here before," he said. "They jumped over the wall and to the next pool, and they were maybe in there two minutes. But with masks and gloves on, you couldn't tell much about them. There's just not much we could've done."
Bridges said the theft was the first of its type in the time his family has owned the business. In previous years, there was only one other incident, in which two alligators found at Lake Hamilton by Game and Fish officers turned out to be from the farm.
"We count all our animals every month, and one time about seven or eight years ago, [Game and Fish] found two gators. And, at first, we didn't think anything of it," he said. "But after we went out and counted one of the back ponds, we saw we had two missing.
"But if one disappears goes missing or dies, we turn a report in" to Game and Fish officers
Bridges said the farm, which has been open since 1902, was purchased by his grandfather in 1945 before his father purchased it in 1965.
Now retired from years of coaching at Lake Hamilton High School, Bridges said he manages the farm for his father.
Bridges said the Hot Springs Police Department is investigating the theft. The public is being asked to contact the police department or call the alligator farm if they have any knowledge of the theft, adding that "we really want them back."
State Desk on 08/18/2015