May 2

LOS ANGELES: Steve Irwin's expert crew of Australian crocodile wranglers are set to fly to Los Angeles to solve one of the city's great mysteries – where's Reggie?

LA residents were stunned yesterday when news broke that Reggie, a 2m long alligator, was spotted swimming in Lake Machado, a popular inner-city lake.

Reggie was last seen in the lake 18 months ago and Irwin, who was visiting LA at the time, vowed to catch the reptile before it attacked a jogger or picnicker.

LA City Council contacted the late Crocodile Hunter's manager, John Stainton, in Australia yesterday to ask if Irwin's crack crew of wranglers at Queensland's Australia Zoo could trap Reggie.

"They felt like it would be a great way to honour Steve's memory and fulfill his promise.

Hundreds of locals lined the lake today with binoculars, hoping to spot the elusive reptile, while local TV stations led their news bulletins with the Reggie sighting.

Reggie shocked locals when he was first spotted swimming in the lake in August 2005, but two months later he disappeared until yesterday's sighting.

LA city officials and residents are dumbfounded about where Reggie may have been hiding.

"We want to talk to Steve's crocodile guys to give us a sense where Reggie has been all this time," City Council said.

Irwin, who was killed by a stingray on Queensland's Great Barrier Reef last September, toured Lake Machado in a small boat in early 2006 searching for Reggie.

Steve knew we were in quite a predicament since we were very unfamiliar with alligators.

Steve said `I want to help Los Angeles'.

It is not known if Steve's wife, Terri, and budding TV star daughter, Bindi, would join the Reggie expedition.

Details of who would pay for Irwin's crew to fly to LA were still to be finalised.

Adding to the folklore of Reggie, LA Council had enlisted a motley crew of American crocodile trappers to catch Reggie, but all failed.

We've had our share of `gator wranglers.

One of them had escaped from jail.

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