How did alligators get into the sewers of New York? Maybe they took an airplane.
When West Palm Beach Airport was officially dedicated in 1936, the first flight out was an Eastern Airlines DC-2 bound for New York City. To celebrate the event West Palm Beach Mayor Ted Brown and Florida Postmaster O.B. Carr decided to send a pair of baby alligators to New York as gifts for New York Mayor F.H. La Guardia and Postmaster General James A. Farley. The critters were shipped along with several other pieces of mail on the airliner. The cost of postage was the princely sum of 60 cents per reptile.
Unfortunately, the airliner had to make a forced landing near Port Jervis, New York. When the post office recovered the six sacks of mail from the plane, the baby gators were mysteriously absent.