A suspected burglar was eaten alive by an alligator while he was allegedly hiding out from cops in a Florida lake last month.

Florida officials announced Monday that they believe 22-year-old Matthew Riggins jumped into a lake to apparently hide from law enforcement shortly before he was attacked by an 11-foot alligator, reports WPLG.

Sometime between the late evening and early morning hours of Nov. 12 and Nov. 13, Riggins called his girlfriend and told her that he planned to burglarize homes in Barefoot Bay with an unnamed accomplice, said Brevard County Sheriff's Maj. Tod Goodyear.

After receiving calls about two suspicious men in black walking behind homes, police arrived in the Tequesta Drive area of Barefoot Bay around 2 a.m. on Nov. 13. Deputies began searching the area before they were later joined by K-9 units and a sheriff's helicopter.

While they were searching the area, investigators say Riggins called his girlfriend to tell her they were being chased and lying low. Eventually, deputies called off the search, but Riggins' family reported him missing less than 24 hours later.

Ten days later on Nov. 23, Goodyear said sheriff's divers recovered Riggins' body in a nearby lake and that the injuries suggested an alligator had pulled him below the surface.

"He hid in the wrong place," Barefoot Bay resident Laura Farris told Bay News 9.

The Brevard County Sheriff's Office dive team encountered the same gator while recovering the man's body. After the aggressive animal was trapped and euthanized, officials discovered Riggins' hand and foot inside of its stomach.

"He probably went into the lake to hide from the officers and the dog, and came across that gator," Goodyear said. "To hide somewhere to try and get away, and then meeting up with an animal like that, no, I've never had that happen before."

According to Barefoot Bay resident Chuck Stokes, Riggins' fate was a matter of karma.

"I would say it's poetic justice, you want to sit there and steal from people," he said.