ARE KILLER CROCS HUNTING IN UK WATERS? ‘It’d eat anything it came across – ducks, rats, invertebrates’
A HUGE crocodile emerges from the water, taking a duck from the surface in its enormous jaws before disappearing into the dark water.
But this isn’t Africa or America’s Deep South, it’s on a small freshwater pond in Staffordshire, which has been the location for countless big reptile sightings.
Those who live in the small Black Country town of Cannock know better than to let their dogs swim in Roman View Pool.
Because this relatively small pond, located just off the A5 road next to a suburban housing estate, hides a dark secret.
Ridicule
Back in 2003 it made national headlines for all the wrong reasons because scores of eyewitnesses came forward, despite the risk of utter ridicule, to report terrifying encounters with a CROCODILE.
This beast, not exactly native to UK shores, has been sighted swallowing ducks, attacking small dogs taking a dip and even making a lunge for a walker who just happened to be passing by.
And it created such a stir that the authorities were informed, sparking an urgent and serious investigation.
One man, who refused to be named, blew the whistle to a local newspaper.
He said: “We were there looking at two swans and their baby cygnets.
“There was a commotion in the water and lots of turbulence. As the creature went past I saw it had a flat head, a five- foot body and two- foot tail.
Monster
“It was not smooth and was moving in a snaking action. My initial reaction was it was a crocodile or alligator. I couldn’t be more sure about what I saw.”
Linda Charteras, from nearby Cheslyn Hay, was also out feeding the swans when she too saw the monster.
She added: “I saw the creature first. A large pool of dirt came up. It looked as though it was after one of the cygnets.”
Chortling RSPCA officers were quick to laugh off the croc flap, saying: “Cannock is not the Florida Everglades so it is hard to imagine an alligator or a crocodile surviving for long with the weather you get in this country.”
But others couldn’t dismiss the claims so readily.
Nearby resident John Mizzen regularly walks his dog at the pool, and is adamant that the creature was a whopper in size.
He shuddered: “We were over on the other side of the pond feeding swans, about five feet from the water’s edge.
“My daughter- in- law was looking down this way while I was looking at the lake. She saw the – whatever it was – and said, ‘ That’s never a fish’.
“It then swam along the water’s edge where I reckon the water is no more than two feet deep and it was about five feet long – including the tail.
“When it got five or 10 feet away from us, it came up and broke the surface. Its head was flat, as was its jaw and its nose, and it was dark greenish black in colour and about 18 inches wide.
“The tail had a scaly appearance, and then it went underneath the water and we just lost contact with it.
“It had been on the surface for
about three or four seconds and in that time it covered about 15 to 20 feet.”
More worrying still were mysterious rumours emanating from a nearby slaughterhouse, which sits along a watercourse that feeds Roman View Pool.
The establishment, which deals with the dispatching of sick or elderly horses, supplies the meat to zoos.
But while carcasses were hanging in concrete pits to prepare them for consumption, something had taken large bites out of them.
While experts are quick to point out that the chances of an alien croc surviving the harsh British weather are slim, still the sightings continue in Cannock.
Snarling
And it’s not just the Midlands where snarling amphibians are baring their teeth.
A few years ago a similarly sized croc was spotted basking in a canal in Bristol.
What’s more, this scaly whopper even sparked a large- scale search by Avon and Somerset police.
It began when a bus driver flagged down cops having caught sight of the critter under the city’s Coronation Bridge. It was quickly established that the nearby Bristol Zoo wasn’t missing any of its dangerous predators.
Avon and Somerset police Chief Constable Nick Gargan wrote on Twitter: “One of our officers was flagged down by a bus driver, claiming to have seen a 6ft crocodile under Coronation Bridge.
“We can’t find it.”
While a spokesman stated: “We were called at 10.28am on Monday, February 3, to reports of a crocodile sighted on Bedminster Bridge.
“We checked with Bristol Zoo and we were able to establish that they had not lost a crocodile.
“We carried out a search of the area but found no trace of the reptile.
“Obviously if any other sightings are reported we will investigate further.”
Tropical
Astonishingly enough, the croc sightings continued to trickle through over the coming weeks and months, and still do so to this day.
Andy Carbin, Bristol Zoo’s senior reptile and amphibian keeper, said that though it was unlikely there was a crocodile on the loose it was not impossible.
He said: “I think it is pretty unlikely that there is a crocodile.
“If there was it would be pretty cold by now. Most crocodile species are tropical.
“I guess it would have had to be pretty big to have been spotted from the bridge.
“Generally they just poke their head up out of the water – just their eyes and their snout.
“If it was in the water, to be honest with you, it would eat anything that it came across – rats, ducks, invertebrates.”