A 13-year-old Florida boy shared his distressing story after an alligator grabbed his leg while he played with friends at a creek near Orlando. Gabriel Klimis told FOX 35 that after he jumped from a rope off a bridge, one of his feet was on the sand, then the gator got his other foot and pulled him back.
Once the gator grabbed his right leg, he said, “I knew that if he didn’t let go, there was no getting him off because his jaw was so tied on. There’s no getting out of that.” In an interview, Klimis, while sitting beside his mom, explained that he held onto a stick on the shore to keep from being pulled in. Gabriel said, “He kept pulling, so then I just tried to hit him, and then he let go, and I ran up as fast as I could.”
The 13-year-old went to the closest house and called his mom for help. Allison Klimis said she told her son to call 911, admitting his story left her in “complete shock. Terror, of course. Super scared.” However, Gabriel appeared calm during his 911 call, telling the dispatcher, “Yeah, I can walk. I just got bit by a gator.” He added in the call, “It just stings a bit, but I’m good,” saying his wound wasn’t “bleeding too bad, but my skin’s like open pretty good.”
When the dispatcher asked about the gator’s current whereabouts, he answered, “I don’t know. I got out of the water as fast as I could.” Then, the teen was taken to a hospital, where he received stitches in his leg. Allison, a doctor, told FOX 35, “In the end, I’m just blessed, grateful, thankful that the angels were watching over him and God was there because I know without that, my son could definitely be gone.”
Still, Gabriel said the incident won’t stop him from enjoying more summer fun. He explained, “It’s not going to stop me from swimming somewhere else, like in a different creek or something, with my friends and having fun.” The family told FOX 35 that a nuisance trapper killed the gator after the attack, but they weren’t sure if that was the one that bit Gabriel.
In February, an 85-year-old woman was killed by a 10-foot alligator while walking her dog near her retirement community in Fort Pierce, Florida. And last month, a man’s arm had to be amputated after being attacked by an alligator near a pond outside a bar in Port Charlotte, Florida.