Python not the first scary animal let loose in North Seattle

Two Caiman’s were found in Green Lake when Luke was a boy growing up in North Seattle. This image shows a 50-centimeter Caiman. (AP Photo/file)

It turns out the yellow python reportedly slithering around Seattle’s Cowen Park isn’t the first scary creature released in the neighborhood.

“My childhood was marked with something not unlike this escaped python story,” says Luke Burbank of the Ross and Burbank Show.

When Burbank was about 8-years old growing up on the shores of Green Lake, he says he and his neighbor friends were captivated by a story of an escaped alligator reportedly swimming around the lake.

“In our minds, this thing was 10 feet long and it was just swimming around in Green Lake and we were both really, really hoping to see it and also terrified we would see it.”

From the shore and on floaty inner tubes, he and his friends would set up missions to seek out the beast.

“We’d all have a story of how we thought we’d seen it,” says Luke.

The animal was eventually captured. He says it turned out to be two Caimans, which are small crocodiles.

“They were two feet long and actually kind of cute,” he says.

The six-foot long yellow python reported missing this week has not yet been found. No word yet on whether Luke will rustle up the alligator hunters for a python quest.

By JAMIE GRISWOLD, MyNorthwest.com Editor