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NATCHEZ — Ward 6 Alderman Curtis Moroney was lounging on his patio Sunday, enjoying the day’s beautiful weather, when he received a call from a friend reporting some exciting news.

“ ‘There’s an alligator on Homochitto Street,’ ” Moroney said his friend David Gammill told him.

Moroney headed over to New Covenant Presbyterian Church, where he was told Natchez Police officers were working to capture the animal, which they did with a pole and noose.

Moroney said Sport Center’s Chip Sturdivant first spotted the alligator on Homochitto and alerted the authorities.

Police officers, Sturdivant, Moroney and others pondered what to do with the 3-1/2 to 4-foot long, young alligator and decided to release him on Silver Street into the Mississippi River.

After a photo opportunity, the alligator made his way into the river and off to a new life, away from the bayou between Hope Farm and Auburn, which is where those involved think he wandered away from.