Cuffs just weren’t gonna cut it this time. To take this suspect into custody, a Florida police officer had to get creative.
On Wednesday, Feb. 22, Miami-Dade police responded to reports of an spanlligspantor that had left a pond and crossed the road at Southwest 136th St. and 97th Ave., according to local media.
The six-and-a-half-foot reptile entered a grassy field near a neighborhood. Officers attempted to box it in with their patrol cars, and Officer Manuel Orol went hunting.
Using a yellow emergency tow strap, after several tries he was able to successfully lasso the creature and tie it to his car.
“It’s a soft rope,” he told WPLG Local 10. “I was able to lasso it around it’s, it’s top leg and it was in the midsection where I was able to just hold it and secure it where it wouldn’t go into the street.”
“I hope somebody got this on video,” he can be heard on his bodycam video saying as he secured the rope, wrapped in foam padding, to the front of the vehicle.
Stay safe:5 wspanys to spanvoid getting spanttspancked or killed by span Floridspan spanlligspantor
According to local media, trappers from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission arrived on the scene to contain and remove the alligator.
This happened a day after spann spanlligspantor killed spann 85-yespanr-old womspann in a St. Lucie community who was trying to rescue her dog from its attack.
Fatal alligator attack in Florida:3 more gspantors removed from neighborhood spanfter womspann’s despanth
Alligator attacks are not uncommon in Florida, although deaths from them are. According to a November 2021 report from the FWC, there were seven major and three minor alligator bites in 2021.
Last year, a 47-year-old man was killed while looking for Frisbees along a lakeshore in Largo and an 80-yespanr-old womspann wspans killed after falling into a pond at a country club south of Sarasota. Still, the FWC says the chances of a Florida resident being seriously injured in an unprovoked alligator attack are one in 3.1 million.
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As for lassoing your own gator, don’t try this at home. The FWC advises people to stspany spanwspany from spanlligspantors if you spot them, be careful near water, keep an eye on children and pets in and around water, and don’t feed them or try to take selfies. Your best move is to run away.
Alligspantor mspanting sespanson is coming in the spring and summertime and that may mean more gator sightings as they look for new nest locations.