Gator Watch Day 3: Second alligator quickly caught; first still unaccounted for

Who knew Spokane County has a gator problem?

On Wednesday came the news that a 3-foot alligator was on the loose in Spokane Valley. On Thursday, the alleged owner appeared on local TV stations denying he ever had a gator. And on Friday afternoon, tips about the first gator led authorities to a second one being kept at a home in northeast Spokane County.

Nancy Hill, director of the Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service, said she’s never encountered a live alligator in her 30 years working for the service. It’s illegal to keep gators as pets in Washington.

“We’ve had a couple reports in the past several decades,” Hill said. “But we’ve never had a live alligator in the building. We’ve never impounded an alligator.”

The two gator cases from this week, she said, are “completely not related.”

Gator 1: It’s … somewhere

Erich Urbat denies he ever kept a gator in the backyard of his mobile home in Spokane Valley, but neighbors, animal protection officers and photo evidence say otherwise.

He lives at the University Mobile Home Park at 9518 E. Fourth Ave. At 12:43 p.m. Wednesday, a manager there called 911 after she learned there was an alligator in a covered pond in Urbat’s backyard.

When an animal protection officer arrived at 1:25 p.m., Urbat and the gator were gone. According to SCRAPS, neighbors said he picked up the gator and hoisted it over the fence.

He rejects that claim.

“If I had a 3 1/2-foot alligator, why in the hell would I, one day, for no reason at all, pick it up over my head and stick it over my fence?” he said. “And how could I do that in the first place?”

The mobile home park manager, Michelle Fitzhugh, said Urbat arrived after she called 911, but before the SCRAPS officer arrived, to move the gator.

“He has cameras facing in the backyard, so when he saw us snooping around back there, he showed up in five minutes,” she said.

Urbat said his accusers also claimed he handed the gator to someone on the other side of the fence, who sped away in Urbat’s black Jeep. He said that detail is equally false – because there was no gator.

Authorities don’t buy it.

“It was definitely there,” Hill, the SCRAPS director, said Thursday.

Fitzhugh said her son saw the gator and snapped a photograph that has been widely circulated online and in news media.

The pond in Urbat’s backyard is identical to the one shown in the photo. Urbat would not let a reporter take another picture of it Friday afternoon.

Urbat claimed the pond – a small wooden box lined with tarp and covered with chicken wire – used to contain Koi fish. Then he said they’re goldfish – the ones he bought Wednesday morning, before animal protection officers visited his residence.

“My neighbor’s cat kept eating them, and that’s why I had the chicken wire on there,” he said.

The water in the pond was murky, and no fish could be seen.

Several animal experts have weighed in on the case of the missing gator, saying it can’t possibly survive outdoors in the region’s cold weather.

Urbat and his ex-wife, Amber Urbat, made headlines in 2003 when they were accused of plotting to hire a hitman to kill one of her ex-boyfriends, the father of one of her children. At the time, she said she was worried about losing custody of the child to the ex-boyfriend.

The conspiracy-to-commit-murder charge was dropped as part of a deal with prosecutors, but the Urbats did plead guilty to drug charges. They had allegedly offered to pay the hitman with about $25 worth of methamphetamine, according to court documents.

Amber Urbat was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Erich Urbat’s criminal history also includes convictions for burglary and insurance fraud. They divorced in 2004.

Gator 2: From one safe home to another

Hill, the SCRAPS director, recalled a surprising phone call Friday afternoon.

“When the animal protection officer called to say he found an alligator, that he’d followed up on a tip, I said, ‘Oh, good. I’m glad that case is closed.’ ”

“He said, ‘Actually, we got another one. It’s a different alligator.’ ”

The tip led authorities to a home in an unincorporated part of northeast Spokane County, where a 4-foot gator was being kept as a family pet. A man in the household, whose name was not released, acquired the animal from a friend about five years ago, Hill said.

“He made a big effort to care for it,” she said. “He had a water feature for it. He had a heat lamp.”

Hill described the gator as “socialized” and “friendly,” noting that it remained calm as animal protection officers handled it and stroked its head. She’s no gator expert, but the animal seemed healthy, she said.

The owner said he didn’t know it’s illegal to keep alligators and was upset at the loss of his pet, Hill said. The man named his scaly beast Boots – because if ever the gator were to bite someone, that’s what it would become.

Boots is about 6 years old and will be taken to a licensed shelter in Western Washington.

Erich Urbat, meanwhile, continues to insist he never had a gator.

But if he did have one?

“Hypothetically, if I were to have something like that, I’d probably name it Samsonite, like the briefcase,” Urbat said. “Because eventually he would become luggage.”