Alabama Family Catches Record-Breaking Alligator

The more than 1,000-pound gator took 10 hours to catch.

ByABC News
August 17, 2014, 11:28 AM

— -- A mammoth alligator gator is breaking records in Alabama.

Five members of the Stokes family caught this monster alligator Saturday in Thomaston, Alabama.

It took them 10 hours to wrangle the mammoth beast.

Biologists at Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries easily measured the alligator at 15 feet, but weighing it was a big more tricky.

PHOTO: A monster alligator weighing 1011.5 pounds measuring 15 feet long is pictured in Thomaston, Ala. on Aug. 16, 2014.
A monster alligator weighing 1011.5 pounds measuring 15 feet long is pictured in Thomaston, Ala. on Aug. 16, 2014.

The alligator was so large it destroyed the winch used to lift average-sized alligators.

Eventually, a biologist had to use a backhoe to lift the alligator onto the scale.

It weighed in at 1,011.5 pounds, making the gator the largest ever killed in Alabama.