Source The Charlotte Observer
Alligators are affectionately known as “swamp puppies” in Florida, so it makes sense a deputy would be recorded scolding one like a naughty dog after it plopped down in the middle of a road.
The humorous encounter began around 12:20 a.m. Wednesday, May 15, when Master Corporal Donald Metcalf of the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office found a 9-foot alligator on College Avenue in Ruskin.
It wasn’t crossing the road, the video shows. It was just sitting there across the travel lanes, like a speed bump. Ruskin is about a 25-mile drive south from downtown Tampa.
“You just taking a nap?” Metcalf asks, as he walks up to the alligator. “Oh, hi, big boy.”
The video then cuts to the deputy herding the alligator out of traffic, using just a flashlight.
At first, the gator cooperates, but then plops down in a driveway, growls and bares it teeth at the deputy.
“Come on. Keep going. Don’t be nasty,” the deputy says. “We were ... friends.”
The sweet talk ultimately failed.
An hour later, Metcalf was still there, watching three deputies and a professional wildlife trapper engage in a tug-of-war with the hissing alligator.
The tussle ended just before 2 a.m., with the gator bound and being carried to the bed of a pickup truck, the video shows.
It was relocated to a safer spot, which are plentiful with Florida’s numerous rivers, lakes and drainage ponds.
The incident was handled without traffic being blocked, the sheriff’s office said.
As for why the alligator was in the road, May and June are mating season, when the reptiles wander in search of mates, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission says.
___________
©2024 The Charlotte Observer.
Visit charlotteobserver.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
