A 9-foot alligator was loitering on a Florida street, so police had to — very carefully — “arrest” it.
The lizard lockdown happened Wednesday night, not far from Raymond James Stadium, where the Tampa Bay Buccaneers play.
The Tampa Police Department treated the ‘gator like any other suspect, bodycam footage of the incident shows.
“Tape his front legs together … like behind his back, like you’re handcuffing him,” one officer can be heard saying in the clip. “Then you’re gonna do the same thing with his back legs.”
When the slithery creature was first approached, and an officer poked it with his baton, it repeatedly whipped its tail.
Two officers then held the animal down, while another lassoed a rope around the gator’s mouth.
They also covered its eyes with a towel and taped its mouth, and then front and hind legs together.
“I’ve seen the deputies deal with them. Tampa police, not so much, so I was really surprised and happy when I just showed up and saw they were putting me out of a job,” Phil Walters, an alligator trapper contracted with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told WFLA.
“And they did a great job. So I guess there’s some good ol’ boys on the TPD, they had that thing taken care of for me.”
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