10 Urban Legends That Turned Out To Be True
7. Alligators In The Sewers
The legend: Reports of sewer-dwelling alligators lurking under New York City date back to the 1920s. Most accounts claim they started out as pets which were flushed down the toilet by their owners once they had grown too large.
The truth: Although the original reports should be taken with a grain of salt, sewer gators aren't entirely the stuff of folklore and bad B-movies. In 2010, the NYPD fished a baby alligator out of a sewer near a Chinese restaurant in Queens.
In the movies, these creatures usually grow to terrifying proportions, living off sewage and rats, but experts pointed out that this particular gator would never have lived to see adulthood once the freezing New York winter had kicked in.
Gators are often spotted in drains in Florida, where their natural habitats back onto waste outlets. They are known to shelter in sewers during storms and cold snaps.