Deputies seek 'wicked' vandals who gouged out alligator's eyes

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Detectives in Martin County are looking for the vandals who tortured an alligator so badly that it had to be euthanized.

According to the sheriff’s office, an unknown number of suspects broke into the Del Monte Foods location along Kanner Highway in Indiantown earlier this week. 

Deputies say the vandals kicked out a metal panel in a door, cut an electrical outlet, used a fire extinguisher from a barn to spray foam on a large piece of farm equipment, and wrote graffiti on the outdoor portable toilets. They also turned the outdoor water faucets on, causing flooding near the entryway.

But that wasn’t all.  The suspect or suspects tortured a 4-foot alligator they found on the grounds by gouging its eyes out with a blunt object.

“The wicked act blinded the gator,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook late Wednesday night. 

The reptile also had cut marks on its back. 

Deputies called a private trapper to the scene and the gator was captured. But it had to be euthanized as a result of its injuries.

Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call Detective John Barca with the Martin County Sheriff’s Agricultural Crimes Unit, (772) 220-7000.