PUBLIC SAFETY: Alligators are not pets. Respect that reptiles home and then leave with only your footsteps left behind.

For more information about two alligators in particular, Elvis and Ripples, please enjoy this eye-popping edition from a former ‘Lake Worth’ tabloid that has been recently discovered!

This latest one is Issue No. 10
from March 20th, 2015.

Do you remember Elvis the Alligator?

Continue reading to learn more about Elvis, the reptilian celebrity at the municipal golf course that would stop by and entertain Canadian tourists and golfers from all over Palm Beach County (see newspaper clipping below). After a show he would head over to the par 3 in the Town of Palm Beach, make the rounds along the Intracoastal and then head on back to the LWB course, a par 70.


How the history of Elvis came to be. . .


Once again a crew of painters doing work all over Lake Worth Beach has boxes and boxes of old newspapers and every now and then they find something very special like this recent news about City Manager Michael Bornstein from Issue No. 12, April 10th, 2015.

By the way, that former tabloid which used the Latin banner, “Domine, ut videam” [translated, ‘Lord, that I may see’] was always FREE and delivered for FREE and had hardly any advertising. It remains a mystery why it went out of business. However, from that effort came an incredible new way to clean windows using newsprint, water, liquid detergent and vinegar!

Now back to the painting crew finding all
that old news worth noting.

Typically the crew will show up and put old newsprint down to protect the floor and every now and then will come the yell from one of the painters, “Gee Wiz! Look what I found!”

But please note this former tabloid “Published in Lake Worth, FL” beginning with Vol. I in late 2014 is not to be confused with The Lake Worth Herald or The Palm Beach Post still available for the public in Lake Worth Beach.

See the newspaper clipping below with the headline,

Elvis the Alligator Spotted at
Lake Worth Golf Course

This news about Elvis could provide some clues how Ripples the Alligator ended up in Lake Osborne! Were Ripples and Elvis somehow separated? We’ll delve into that question later on.

But first to the news from four years ago from that former tabloid which went out of business 3½ years ago. There never was a Vol. II.

The newsprint was damaged by paint but fortunately

not enough to ruin the story.

Click on newspaper clipping to enlarge newsprint.
Read all about Elvis, the orphan alligator:

Front page news below the fold: The text in the last column before jumping to page 4. . .

“Elvis was getting some sun, a raccoon walked quickly across the parking lot, and disappeared into the dumpster enclosure, and a baby raccoon, appearing to be orphaned, was seen crawling around on the . . .”

Then the story about Elvis picks up on p. 4 describing the orphaned raccoon crawling around the, “[G]rass near the 11th hole.”

The gripping comma-laden story continues. . .


But Elvis gets the most attention. All good.

“People have told me that gators don’t eat people,” says Mike, a Canadian. “They find ’em too salty.”

Bartender ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ says Elvis disappeared for a while, but that with the warm weather in the last few weeks, he’s returned to his pond, or resurfaced, anyway.

But where did he come from?

“I heard theories that the last bad storm we had, he got washed up,” says The Beach Club’s assistant manager, ■■■ ■■■. He says the restaurant looked into relocating him, but that they were told he’s too small.

Elvis is thought to be about 3½ feet long, nose to tip of tail.

Employees say he appears to be a bit bigger than last year, when they used to see him.

There’s no sign of any other family members.

“The theory is that there is a 10′ gator over there,” says ■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ [Beach Club bartender], pointing to the shoreline.

American alligators live in freshwater, and sometimes in brackish water, a mixture of salt and fresh water. They are only found in the Southeastern [sic] United States, with the largest number of them in Florida and Louisiana.

Female alligators, on average, are around 8′ in length while males reach an average size of about 11′ feet, according to The Smithsonian Institution. Alligators typically grow about a foot a year.

THE END.

UPDATE: Could it be Elvis was orphaned by Ripples?

Of course everyone by now has read the news in The Palm Beach Post about Ripples the Alligator, a pet 12′ alligator kept in Lake Osborne by some residents of Lake Worth Beach.

Lake Osborne is in John Prince Park. John Prince Park and the lake are managed and controlled by the County. But one day trappers took Ripples out of the lake for so-called ‘public safety’ reasons and Ripples’ owners didn’t want their massive pet alligator to end up as gator nuggets on an appetizer menu somewhere.

Follow along. Were Ripples and Elvis separated in 2015 along the City’s golf course and then Ripples headed west looking for Elvis? Remember, in the story above about Elvis the bartender at The Beach Club bistro cited the theory, “[T]here is a 10′ gator over there” pointing at the Lake Worth Lagoon.

And what’s the problem with alligators anyhow? Really! As we learned in the story about Elvis alligators don't like eating humans anyhow, information from a Canadian tourist who said alligators think humans are ‘too salty’.

And in The Palm Beach Post recently is was reported that,


“Gators really don’t like humans to eat. They eat other things like fish.”

—Quote. Published in The Palm Beach Post on Jan. 31st, 2019, in a story headlined, “Harmless or harmful? Massive 12-foot gator dragged out of Lake Osborne”.


Hope you found this information helpful today and stay tuned.

It’s only a matter of time before another edition of that former Lake Worth tabloid shows up!