Date: Thursday, June 3, 2004  

By WILL VASH
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Dateline: PORT ST. LUCIE  

A would-be patron of a local cafe came in through the kitchen door Tuesday night lacking the basics of good manners: The customer hissed at the wait staff, ignored gestures to leave and scared the paying customers.

But that’s table etiquette for a 4 1/2-foot alligator escaping dry conditions in St. Lucie County. 

Waitress Valerie Fox, 47, was walking to a back counter about 6 p.m. at Cafe Creme, 1068 S.E. Port St. Lucie Blvd., to fill some coffee for customers when she saw the animal behind the table.

“He was standing there and he hissed, and I just freaked out,” Fox said.

She said she ran outside to call police, who soon arrived with Port St. Lucie Animal Control officers.

In the meantime, a chef at the restaurant banged on the counter and the alligator turned for a place to hide, Fox said. The animal eventually moved into a space near a cabinet and wall.

Police believe the dry conditions caused the alligator, who possibly originated from the St. Lucie River, to seek a cooler place. It probably slipped in the restaurant’s back door when it was cracked open.

Fox said she was shaking after the encounter, but many people found the whole thing funny. Customers arriving at the restaurant had been asked to wait outside until the alligator was removed, and “they wanted to come in and give the alligator chicken,” Fox said.

But the alligator’s meal would have to wait. Once animal control officers corralled the unwelcome visitor, they drove it to the Savannas Preserve State Park, where it was released, according to a Port St. Lucie police report.

Fox, who has been a waitress for 20 years and never had a customer quite like this, said she is happy the animal is back where it belongs.

“I think it’s really great,” she said. “I mean, you just can’t let him walk back out the door.”