It’s a mystery worthy of those super-sleuths Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, complete with a scene of the “crime” along a much-used shore road, Manursing Way.
It’s a mystery worthy of those super-sleuths Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys, complete with a scene of the “crime” along a much-used shore road, Manursing Way. Someone has been stripping clothing and decorations from a lady gator-log lying on a narrow strip between the inlet and the road from Manursing Island.
Even before she moved to Rye in 2007, Jana Seitz walked by an old split log and thought, “Well, that sure looks like a gator;” being from Louisiana, she knows her gators. Soon, she painted it green, added teeth and eyes, and with permission from the closest neighbor, Paul Rheingold, put it in place. She and friends have been decorating the lady gator for years in springtime and for other occasions to the delight of many, but apparently not all, passers-by.
A few weeks ago, Victoria Koos-Ballentine noticed clothing beside the gator, so she re-dressed her. A couple of days later, Seitz noticed someone had undressed her again. Yet a third time, she found an all caps note, which read: “This is City of Rye Property if you would like to decorate please do so in your own yard this space is for everyone not one family leave nature alone thank you.”
“Ironically,” said Seitz, a member of the Friends of Edith Read board, “I spend all my time working to leave nature alone. Plus, Paul and I think it’s on private property anyway.”
A group has vigorously redecorated the gator.
– Tom McDermott
