A white alligator was allegedly stolen in Florida and 43 other reptiles were killed in a suspected burglary and arson at a sanctuary operated by "Swamp Brothers" hosts Stephen and Robbie Keszey.
Investigators think the rare Leucistic gator named "Snowball" was taken before the fire began at about 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sumter County Sheriff's Capt. Pat Breeden said, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
"Swamp Brothers" aired on the Discovery Channel in 2011 and 2012, and the Keszey brothers ran Animal Crossings of Florida Inc. west of Interstate 75 in Bushnell.
Snowball was known to have been in the building at about 11:30 a.m. Friday, the Sheriff's Office said in a post on Facebook.
Robbie Keszey told CBS Miami his son alerted him to the fire.
"I dropped everything and ran out the door and you could just see smoke. And my wife called 911 and I ran up here and I tried to grab the door and open up at the flames were coming out the sides," he told the station.
He said the white alligator was valued at about $100,000 but was priceless as an animal used to educate and entertain children.
“When you can make a kid feel like that and forget all about their problems for 10 minutes, and that’s what Snowball did," Keszey told CBS Miami. "And that’s why we want him back. And we want to continue doing that with him."
Only about a dozen Leucistic alligators exist in the world, according to Gatorland.
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