Fullerton Urban Legend Confirmed!

Posted on September 15, 2004 in Creatures The Orange

Which doesn’t make it an urban legend any more! Fishermen at the Laguna in Fullerton have been saying that there was “something huge down there” for years. A local lake maintenance company started dredging the lake last week, removing some 5,000 fish so they could clear out the overgrown vegetation:

Nearing the end of their work Thursday, they found what appeared to be huge log in their net.

Except this log had a head that lunged at them.

“He looked prehistoric,” Path said.

Old Bob fought back, snapping off the end of a bamboo pole Path used to maneuver him and trying to climb out of Paquette’s pickup. He seemed to calm down after she placed a kiddie pool, a blanket and a net on top of him.

For the time being, Old Bob is in a private backyard pond in Orange County. He has plenty of fish, chicken and plants to eat and will eventually be crated and flown to a preserve on the East Coast.

Old Bob turns out to be an alligator snapping turtle, a species not native to California. How he got into the bottom of Fullerton’s Laguna is anyone’s guess: perhaps he grew to unmanageable size for a pet owner who trucked him to the lake in the dead of night and released him. The best guess for his age is approximately 50 years. Reports of this lake monster have been circulating since the 1970s.

To see Old Bob in all his glory, click here.

Thanks to Terry at OC Metroblogs for this lead.